Is the Internet Helping Us Learn, or Learn to Forget?

"Google it," the go-to answer for most of us when general interest, skepticism, or flat out nothing enters our brain.

Over the past few years, most of us have come to know and love our know-it-all friend named Google. Without questioning our motives, Google not only helps us with our spelling, the experienced search guru grants us access to over a million different sources of information - without a single complaint I might add.

With laptop sales continuing to overshadow their homebody equivalent - the desktop, as well as pocket sized smartphones becoming the must have gadget for digital consumers, Google is becoming more and more prevalent in our everyday lives. But as our society continues to depend on these handy portable information suppliers in our quest of information, I wonder if we are really learning the information we seek, or are we simply remembering how and where to locate it? Are we are becoming more reliant on where the information is, rather than what it is?

In 2008, Dzulkifli Razak, the vice-chancellor of the Universiti Sains Malaysia, announced at a conference to promote the advancement of information and computer technologies (ICT), the dependence on cell phones, laptops, and the general "modern communication devices" may have a significant impact on memory. He mentioned in his opening remarks, that as people become highly accustomed to using their portable tools of the trade, they will likely have trouble remembering information such as dates and numbers.

These claims indicate that as we evolve into our habitual dependence of using our portable devices for information seeking, we chance pinpointing exactly where and how we found the information, but may have trouble reciting content.

Is this a bad thing?

With the Internet as young as it is and our society constantly altering our social norms to embrace The Almighty Google, maybe finding the information we seek is as good a skill as learning the information we seek.

Hey, all we have to do is pull it out of our pocket, right?