Your say: Is Google making us dumb or is it helping us learn?

This morning while reading an article, I came across a political term that I wasn’t familiar with. Straight away I whipped up Google, typed that word in and got the definition. Now I know what it means! Last week in the office we were discussing whether or not an over 60 celebrity has children. I was sure I knew the answer as I’d had a similar conversation with someone else recently but couldn’t recall it, so I Googled it to find out.

Google gives us access to a world of information we otherwise would never reach. We can ask a question and have it answered for us. While we were growing up we had to learn the hard way. We got told to use our brains and if we didn’t know something then it was straight to the encyclopaedia!

And it seems as though we were looking for knowledge the right way back then. The Daily Mail reports that a new study has found a correlation between cognitive ability and the frequency of Google use. People who have stronger cognitive skills and an ability to think analytically were less likely to pick up their phone to recall information or solve a problem.

The study authors said having permanent access to this host of information was making us lazy and we are beginning to stop extending our mind and using cognitive skills.

So today I want to know, what do you think? Do you think Google helps us to learn more or is it making us lazy and to be frank, dumb?