Neuroscientist Erman Misirlisoy, PhD, argues that “Internet usage has ‘Googlified’ our brains, making us more dependent on knowing where to access facts and less able to remember the facts themselves. This might sound a little depressing, but it makes perfect sense if we are making the most of the tools and resources available to us. Who needs to waste their mental resources on remembering that an ‘ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain,’ when the Internet can tell us at a moment’s notice? Let’s save our brains for more important problems… [And] as with practically everything in the world, moderation and thoughtful consumption are likely to go a long way.” [37] While we do tend to use the Internet to look up more facts now, consider what we did before the Internet. Did we know this information? Or did we consult a cookbook or call a friend who knows how to roast chicken? Benjamin C. Storm, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of California at Santa Cruz, explained, “It remains to be seen whether this increased reliance on the Internet is in any way different from the type of increased reliance one might experience on other information sources.”
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