The Future of Google & Our Minds

In my last blog I touched on my opinion of Google's effect on how we think and view the world, and partly in light of the subject matter of Part 2, I'd like to discuss this further. Part 2 featured some interesting insight into Google's advertisement model, and how it personalizes the ads to each individual user. I see this as a further example of how Google's specialization of information may be damaging to humanity's mental health.

A supersmart search engine that knows exactly what you're looking for is one thing, but what Google is becoming is something much bigger, and possibly much more dangerous. This may seem like an overstatement, except when you view Google for the paradigm-shifting creation that it is. Google has redefined the way people think, specifically the ways they seek and digest information. Anything you want to know is just a few keystrokes away, so user's tend to skim many articles, rather than reading them one by one.

Although this shift in our learning process may seem more convenient, you have to take into account the specialization of information that you receive. If you have an Android phone or a GMail account, Google knows you, and it will specialize results of your searches to your tastes and opinions. This feature has not reached its full potential yet, however when it does it may serve to create more close-minded individuals, rather than well-informed individuals who have viewed the world from multiple angles. Similarly, the dystopian 'false-past' threat of Google and Wikipedia's control of information distribution seems to be showing itself in small amounts on certain devices (changing the text of 1984 for Kindle editions of the book, certain historical facts missing or misrepresented on Wikipedia, ect.). 

Whether or not these issues will pose a threat to our future mental abilities is difficult to predict, but I think the issue should be recognized and discussed, and perhaps approached from a hesitant viewpoint.