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information is stored, and in search engines like Google, through which we retrieve it—but it doesn’t make us stupid, any more than having access to a library (or in fact, access to writing) makes us stupid. That said, I don’t know that the reverse is true, either: Google and the Net also don’t automatically make us smarter. By 2020, we will have even more access to even more information, using even more sophisticated search and retrieval tools—but how smartly we can make use of this potential depends on whether our media literacies and capacities have caught up, too.” —Axel Bruns, associate professor of media and communication, Queensland University of Technology, and general editor of Media and Culture journal

“My ability to do mental arithmetic is worse than my grandfather’s because I grew up in an era with pervasive personal calculators. I am not stupid compared to my grandfather, but I believe the development of my brain has been changed by the availability of technology. The same will happen (or is happening) as a result of the Googleization of knowledge. People are becoming used to bite-sized chunks of information that are compiled and sorted by an algorithm. This must be having an impact on our brains, but it is too simplistic to say that we are becoming stupid as a result of Google.” —Robert Ackland, research fellow in the Research School of Social Sciences at The Australian National University

“The Google effect is likely to splinter in two ways, primarily dependent on whether or not a person has sufficiently learned to think critically. The people who have will become very good researchers and information managers. They understand the importance of filtering information. Those lacking critical thinking skills will suffer from misinformation and accepting search results at face value. This will be a severe detriment to future individual success. For a long time we’ve stressed critical thinking skills at the college and graduate levels, but in the Internet Age we will need to emphasize critical thinking skills much earlier—my guess is middle school grades (5-7), when kids are being fully exposed to the Web as an information and research resource. Critical thinkers will actually learn more with search and social networking, than without. The effect will be opposite with non-critical thinkers, who I think may be worse off in the era.” —Paul DiPerna, research director at Foundation for Educational Choice, conducting surveys, polling, Internet/social media projects