Does Using Google Make You Smarter?

[Nincompoop]

Lulz nice 8D!

Here's another "The Internet Isn't All Bad Mum"-esque fact.

Did you know that watching TV or playing video games (especially playing video games) makes your eyes stronger?

You get trained in differing between contrasts. Tell that to your parents o.0...
I think 'twas a danish or german study.
I only saw the headlines and a brief summary, but it appears everything about watching too much TV, or playing too much video games, is all BS.

 

[XJ-0461]

So I might be wasting my life on the internet, but at least I'm getting smarter while doing so.

 

[atv_chic_18]

It definitely does not mean you are smarter. It just means that you are tech savvy enough to use resources if they are provided to you.

 

[bjj hero]

It's pretty much like using a giant virtual library when you think about it. Except you don't have that nagging wench in the corner going "shhhh".

...just with more tentacle rape, lol catz and facials.

 

[Jon Etheridge]

It's pretty much like using a giant virtual library when you think about it. Except you don't have that nagging wench in the corner going "shhhh".

...just with more tentacle rape, lol catz and facials.

Hahahahahaha. True. *snicker*... lol catz

Jon Etheridge
-Creator of Apocalypse Lane

 

[Geoffrey42]

Doesn't it indicate that you have trained certain parts of your brain by having used the internet a lot already? I bet that if there was a similar test executed with paper encyclopaedia's, where the no-internet-group were very proficient with them, while the pro-internet-group never used them, then suddenly the paper encyclopaedia readers were the smarter ones. Perhaps not in the same ways though.

From what I understand, this wasn't as if they were being judged on how quickly they could find things. It's that MRI scans showed simply higher brain activity in complex thinking cores.

His point still stands, and I tend to agree: users familiar with the tool exhibited more brain activity when presented with something they were trained in. If the other users had been given an activity that they were more familiar with, the tables may have been turned. This study primarily supports the thesis that "Internet users access more of their brain when using the internet than non-internet users do."

My personal theory on google-fu is that there are two forces at work: One, positive feedback when I search Google and get the results that I want, resulting in my brain thinking along similar patterns the next time I want to find something. Two, Google honing their algorithms to produce the results that I want based on what I put in. Are those same patterns that my brain is learning useful in contexts other than getting what I want from Google? This study certainly doesn't get anywhere near proving so (based on my expert opinion, garnered only from reading the synopsis the internet so kindly fed my attention-addled brain).

 

[Mackinator]

This is great, I finally have a great excuse to use when my parents barge in at three in the morning.

"But mom, I'm learning!"

I already have mine. [Go Away]
but, yeah this might cause less of an arguement.

 

[TaborMallory]

Google used to be my homepage, but now it's the Escapist. So ha on you, Google.

But really, there's not much of a comparison. What would the tests show if the subjects were asked to find a certain piece of information in a book? Or in a room? Or amongst a group of people?

 

[BolognaBaloney]

This is great, I finally have a great excuse to use when my parents barge in at three in the morning.

"But mom, I'm learning!"

I already have mine. [Go Away]
but, yeah this might cause less of an arguement.

[Go away] never seems to work for me. I normally end up telling her I'm asleep (while she stares at me in front of my laptop) until she goes away.

 

[BolognaBaloney]

It's pretty much like using a giant virtual library when you think about it. Except you don't have that nagging wench in the corner going "shhhh".

Instead that nagging wench is porn, and she's whispering "credit cardssss"

 

[HobbesMkii]

From the way it's typed up here, the data does not show that using the Internet makes you smarter. It demonstrates that those using the Internet constantly are smarter, but does not seem to examine for the root cause.

Did these scientist have some part of the study that eliminated the possibility that people who use the internet more often (especially in 50yrs old+) were already likely to be smarter, one that was simply not covered in this article? Because right now it tells me that Internet Users are smarter than Non-Internet Users, but doesn't search for causality. Because in statistics, correlation =/= causality. Maybe dumber people tend not to use complicated objects. Also, what's to say it's the internet specifically causing it? It could just be computer users. I think it would be pretty difficult to own a computer yet avoid the internet.

 

[Geoffrey42]

It demonstrates that those using the Internet constantly are smarter,...

Not that I'm going to disagree with your point that they're failing the correlation/causation dealy, but even what little you're allowing them [^quoted] is more than they've earned. They've demonstrated that people who use the internet have heightened brain activity when using the internet. If you want to define "smart" as "heightened brain activity when using the internet", then your above statement works, but otherwise, under any broader definition of "smart", they're a long way from showing even that correlation. Let alone, as you point out, any form of causation.

EDIT: Sorry if I'm a little overzealous... studies like this and the things they purport to "show" are a pet peeve of mine.

 

[Dottie]

I've always wondered about this. I can't believe that it was actually a reasonable assumption

 

[The Shade]

I've often thought of Google as the schematics for a virtual god. Seriously. Any information that we've ever bothered to record can be found using Google. In that regard, it knows everything.

Also, it looks down upon us from the heavens. (Google Earth.) It has a plan for all of us. (Google Maps.) And it demands sacrifice. (Having to use G-mail.)

 

[Elminsters Hat]

No, the internet doesn't make you smarter.

What this company researched and rightly concluded, is that by researching thinking, asking questions, finding answers, yadayadayada, you're using your brain. And using your brain is good for your brain. The only thing the internet does is open up an endless stream of information on an endless list topics. What a search engine does is organize that information based on what you request with varying degrees of success. Researching using the internet is probably no better or worse for your brain than researching using an encyclopedia is, it just has tons more information and is more easily accessible.

If any companies planning to do similar research in the near future are reading this: don't. Give me the money it's going to cost you instead, and I'll spend 10 minutes writing the unrevolutionary conclusion you're inevitably going to end up with for you.

Ooh, by the way, the next time somebody tells you to stop spending so much time online, before giving a quasi-witty reply, stop and considering for yourself what percentage of time you've spent on the internet browsing lolcats, videoblogs, demotivational posters, failblog, conservapedia or any other internet phenomenon I can't think of right now. If this is more than, say, 5% of your total online time, using the internet probably isn't making you smarter.

 

[Avida]

Surely the data just shows that te internet users have a better idea of what they're doing?

 

[Danpascooch]

I don't find this surprising in the least, you have like a trillion web pages, and need to narrow it down to like 20 based on about 5 or less words, of course that uses complex reasoning

LONG LIVE THE INTERNETZ!

 

[jimduckie]

i'll ask google just gimme a sec

 

[bjj hero]

It's pretty much like using a giant virtual library when you think about it. Except you don't have that nagging wench in the corner going "shhhh".

...just with more tentacle rape, lol catz and facials.

Hahahahahaha. True. *snicker*... lol catz

Jon Etheridge
-Creator of Apocalypse Lane

The world is genuinely a better place for lol catz... I'm not sure if I can say the same about tentacle rape though.

 

[Geoffrey42]

The world is genuinely a better place for lol catz... I'm not sure if I can say the same about tentacle rape though.

If you're somehow under the impression that the internet invented tentacle rape, you sir, are sorely mistaken.

[a href=http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Tentacle_rape]Social conservatives invented tentacle rape.[/a]