The Google Effect is a phenomenon that is becoming more and more prevalent in today’s society. The idea is that because information is so easily accessible thanks to smart phones and laptops equipped with search engines like Google, humans are finding information so quickly and easily that their brains do not even bother committing the information to memory.

There was a time, several decades ago, when students were forced to scour encyclopedias for facts. Because the information was not so easily found, their brains had little choice but to remember as much data as possible to avoid the tedious task of finding it again later. However, experts are saying there is little purpose in retaining the information because most students can simply pull out their phones and find the information again.

Many people are concerned that the Google Effect is making long-term memory an obsolete function. However, the Tarleton State University library staff thinks it may just be a natural part of a technologically advancing world.

“This is the same argument we had as when we started allowing calculators in school.  Yes, students today cannot do math in their heads as easily as when we didn’t have handy-sized calculators, but they can still do math.  Using a search engine to do research is the modern approach to finding the information wanted.  There is so much more accumulated knowledge now that we could not possibly remember everything, even in a discipline that we are supposed to be experts in.  Knowing how to access that information is key,” said Lisa Blackwell, library administrator.

Cathy Wilterding, another library administrator, believes that a student’s ability to locate information is important to academic development. “People turn to library resources and/or the free web based on perceived need – They know where to go to get what they need to know.  Oral cultures go to the storytellers, print cultures go to printed materials, and online cultures go to online resources . . . and not just Google.”

Although humans may not be remembering as much information as past generations had to, one could make the argument that spending less time memorizing facts affords more time for getting work done.