Is Google killing you?

In one of my final semesters in my undergraduate program at the University of North Florida, I took Philosophy of Media Culture. It wasn't exactly what I expected the course to be, but there were certainly things we spoke about that I remember clearly, even now.

There was a class that we talked about the information age that we live in and how having the facts on anything you would want to know a Google search away is having an impact on society.

I love Google.  I love that it came from very simplistic beginnings and has made itself into quite possibly the most lucrative technology company that is in existence today (if you want the full list of the top money-making tech companies, I suggest using google).

As great as Google is, I fear the thought of our society using it as a crutch. When we get so dependent on Google for all of the answers, we could be limiting our abilities to create.

While the argument can be made that Google speeds up our thinking when we search for ideas, I beg the question: are you going to find any sort of original thought by googling it? Obviously, the answer is no. We google to see what others think and often probably because we don't want to use our own precious brain power on the topic.

The internet connects us to people all over the world and is an amazing tool for brainstorming, because of that. Brainstorming is something people have always done, but googling streamlines the process.

We no longer have to ask people we know-- who may or may not be qualified-- to offer an opinion, we can now ask total strangers. Or better yet: read the answers total strangers gave to other total strangers who had the question we had before we did.

Brainstorming is fine, but my critique about asking google for all the answers for everything is that I believe doing so is often gets results that have no creativity in them. It's like you have a desire for a piece of artwork for your house, so rather than going on a quest to find that perfect piece of artwork, you go to Target and buy that same generic piece that two of your friends have and (although you haven't been inside their living room) so does your neighbor across the street.

Where would we be if the great inventors of history just took the "I'm feeling lucky" result for what they should do today and just did that?

So if you find yourself looking for answers to questions on google, you should consider these questions:
1. Am I looking for factual information that I don't remember or don't know? If so, google it!
2. Am I looking for an original idea? If so, look within yourself for an idea. You just might surprise yourself with how creative you are.