Tuesday, September 14, 2010

'Google damaging users' brain'

'Google damaging users' brain'

 

An author has claimed that Google is damaging the brain of its users by providing information almost instantly, leading people to lose their intellectual capacity to store information.

Nicolas Carr, The author of 'The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains', claimed that the web was depriving our mental faculties of the regular workouts they need.

Carr, who is behind the 'Rough Type' blog, argued that to improve concentration sites such as Google should be made more difficult to use, a theory which contradicts software designers who compete to make their programmes simpler.

The comments came not long after Google launched Google Instant, which delivers search results before you finish typing. "In many ways I admire Google, but I think they have a narrow view of the way we should be using our minds," the Telegraph quoted him as telling the BBC News.

"They have this... view that everything's about how efficiently you can find that particular bit of information you need -- and then move on to the next," he added.

The author singled out Google Books for criticism saying it did not "engage" people "in a long narrative". Carr added that satellite-navigation meant people would begin to easily forget routes they had taken before.

He said that GPS devices would diminish the part of the brain that stores mental images of space.