A recent UK study has found that dependence on Google search is leading to increased forgetfulness.
A UK study has found that Internet is playing a major part in eroding people’s memories as more and more people rely on Google search to remember world events in history.
The study was commissioned by Grant Whisky to see how much people remembered from the famous events in world history. The study was conducted on 2000 adults and found that many respondents didn’t remember the year in which the World Trade Center was attacked by terrorists even though it was a recent event.
Less than half the people who participated in the survey remembered the year when princess Diana died or when the Berlin wall fell. Majority of the people surveyed made less of an effort to remember things as it was easy to look them up on the internet via Google.
People remembered the dates for the Battle of Hastings, the two world wars and England’s World Cup win were also ingrained in their memory. The report stated that, the important dates of world-changing events in history are fast disappearing from the memories of the internet generation.
A spokesman for Grant’s Whisky said: “Certain dates are impressed upon us a lot at school and tend to stick but clearly the art for remembering dates fades and it seems we are now retaining less.
“The internet is an incredible resource which enriches and adds much to the quality of modern life, but it could be changing the traditional way we remember and process things – certainly compared to older generations.”
Google has recently updated its search engine on its 15th Birthday. The Hummingbird update helps users make personalized searches instead of just using keywords. Google stated that in the new update Google’s Knowledge Graph will play a larger role in searches.
Source: Express