On September 4, 1998, in Menlo Park, California, a search engine called Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Recently, Google’s popularity has skyrocketed, with billions of searches daily. Based on a few recently conducted research, Google and other search engines might affect our memory negatively.

Think about it: if you want to find the answer to a question you don’t know how to answer, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Would you think about pondering this problem for a long time or just opening your gadget and searching for the answer on Google? It is known as the Google Effect, which states that instead of remembering more facts, we remember where to find them.

I believe this effect will only affect older people. Students’ brains will get exercise through schoolwork and exams, which do not allow them to use electronic gadgets such as phones or computers. It prevents them from searching for the answer on Google or other search engines, and trying to remember the information in their brains instead. However, older people have access to the internet when they are working, so if they have a problem, they can go to Google to search for the answer.

In a study, they find participants who has online access, did not try to remember the answers to the questions. Instead, they thought about computers and search engines like Google rather than searching their (internal) memories. The use of external memory systems is called trans active memory. Some examples of trans active memory are asking another person to remember something or saving lesson notes on your computer.

Trans active memory can be helpful in some cases. Humans share the necessary information we need to remember, making us smarter. When we need information, we can ask someone else or search on Google instead of thinking about it for hours and banging our heads on the wall. However, this advantage comes with a disadvantage: making fast decisions. When we have to make split-second decisions, such as evacuating the school in an emergency; we cannot rely on other people to guide us to the exit. We can only depend on our memory to find the fastest and safest evacuation route.

Although most students, including me, do not think that Google affects our memory, this might change for others. In conclusion, trans active memory is not necessarily bad, but we cannot use it too much, as it also has some disadvantages. To avoid the negative consequences of Google, we should also give our brains regular exercise by solving tough problems without any help and attempting to solve challenges in real life ourselves.