Learning to Cope with Google/ Information Overload

Google chang­ing how humans think (Cana­di­an Business):

- “…the psy­chol­o­gists con­clud­ed that our reliance on the Inter­net has affect­ed how we relate to information—instead of remem­ber­ing the infor­ma­tion itself, we just remem­ber where to find it.”

- “While the move from know­ing infor­ma­tion to know­ing where to find it has many benefits—including free­ing up your brain for more rea­son­ing and ana­lyt­i­cal thinking—there’s a down­side too.”

- “To make sure you don’t fall prey to mis­tak­ing eas­i­ly found facts for knowl­edge, Sharpbrains.com founder Alvaro Fer­nan­dez rec­om­mends keep­ing a brain-fit­ness reg­i­men. He sug­gests set­ting aside 20 min­utes three times a week to exer­cise three core areas: atten­tion, work­ing mem­o­ry and cog­ni­tive abil­i­ty. “In one ses­sion do med­i­ta­tion, in one mem­o­rize some Man­darin char­ac­ters, then do men­tal math in the third.”

- “As long as you keep your mind sharp, Fer­nan­dez doesn’t see dan­ger in rely­ing more on Google for hard facts. “Over time, IQ scores of peo­ple in their 50s and 60s are get­ting bet­ter,” he says. “The net effect is pos­i­tive, but as indi­vid­u­als we need strate­gies to learn to cope.”

Relat­ed articles:

• Can Google Kill Neu­rons and Rewire Your Whole Brain?
• The Over­flow­ing Brain: Most Impor­tant Book of 2008