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'Googling' stuff ends up being really really bad for your memory

Most people are happy to rely on their phones instead of their memories when trying to recall something.

HAVING EASY ACCESS to Google and other search engines may be incredibly handy, but it comes at the price of remembering facts and other important information.

A report by Kaspersky Labs, which surveyed 6,000 Europeans, found that at least one in three European adults are happy to forget, or risk forgetting, information they can find online.

While most would try to remember the answer to a question first, a third (36%) would immediately turn to search engines like Google while almost a quarter (24%) would forget the answer as soon as they would use it.

Although memory does play a part in this, just not in the traditional way as most felt it was necessary to remember where they found a fact online instead of the fact itself.

This extends to remembering other pieces of information like phone numbers. While most adults are able to remember their home phone number when aged 10 – 15, more than half would have to look up their children’s number while the majority would have to look up the number of their children’s schools.

Although the majority surveyed say that this is down to there being too many numbers, addresses, and handles to remember now because of the many different ways we can communicate now.

It probably comes as no surprise that most people would be upset if they lost their devices since it’s where they store personal information like photos and contacts.

The report surveyed 6,000 people aged between 16 and 55 from the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Benelux earlier this year.

Read: The Moto X Play: A large battery helps push a solid Android phone forward >

Read: There are faster ways to sort out your phone’s photo space problem >

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18 Comments
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    Mute Eric Byrne
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    Oct 8th 2015, 11:10 AM

    What was the article about again?

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    Mute Paul Roche
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    Oct 8th 2015, 9:21 PM
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    Mute Rock Frocks
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    Oct 8th 2015, 11:23 AM

    Always liked this quote:

    “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.”

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    Mute Jake Race
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    Oct 8th 2015, 11:28 AM

    Kind of missing the point. The existence of google means that having perfect recall is no longer important. What is important is that you learn how to apply or use whatever the information is and that you can find it again when you need it.

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    Mute Joe Harbison
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    Oct 8th 2015, 4:47 PM

    Actually not automatically the case, remembering stuff, and having the capacity to remember lots of stuff, increases cognitive reserve and potentially helps with other cognitive activities such as problem solving. People with lower cognitive reserve have a higher rate of cognitive failure and dementia.

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    Mute mickmc
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    Oct 8th 2015, 11:41 AM

    I’d agree with the report. Anytime I use a satnav/Google maps to find a new place I’d find it hard to find the place again on my own. Years ago I could always remember my way to a place even if I was there once years previous. The Brain is probably getting lazy

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    Mute little jim
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    Oct 8th 2015, 7:41 PM

    Years ago you hadn’t been to as many places.

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    Mute Beachmaster
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    Oct 8th 2015, 11:55 AM

    Google….the nemesis of the pub know-it-all.

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    Mute Alexander of Dublin
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    Oct 8th 2015, 11:21 AM

    Similar to how very few people can now remember telephone numbers as we have them all programmed into our “smart” phones. Also ties (sort of) into the recent OECD report about technology not improving education in schools (http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34174796). Books aren’t so bad after all even if they are a little heavier than a tablet.

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    Mute Therightman2015
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    Oct 8th 2015, 11:38 AM

    Most people I know tend to be very aggressive when trying to recall something. Usually the “don’t google it” quote gets thrown about

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    Mute David McShite
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    Oct 8th 2015, 12:41 PM

    Modern version of the calculator.
    Since kids have been allowed to use them in school the lose the capacity for basic mental arithmetic.
    If you don’t know what that is you can Google it…. QED! (Google that too.)

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    Mute Luke Evans
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    Oct 8th 2015, 12:10 PM

    if Google is the question, what is the answer?

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    Mute Stephen Mc Elligott
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    Oct 8th 2015, 11:11 AM

    I always thought of Google as a good educational tool as opposed to something that would contribute to memory loss.

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    Mute Maggie
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    Oct 8th 2015, 11:54 AM

    Whon needs drs when you have google

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    Mute Stephen Mc Elligott
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    Oct 8th 2015, 12:01 PM

    I googled a sore throat last night, turns out I have cancer. Can’t beat Google for the old diagnosis.

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    Mute Pete Gibson
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    Oct 9th 2015, 12:30 AM

    Before Google gave us all amnesia EVERYBODY in the world knew that Newton’s law of universal gravitation states that “Any two bodies in the universe attract each other with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them”.
    …..
    Now everybody forgets it…and all because of Google.

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    Mute Tony Le Blanc
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    Oct 8th 2015, 11:27 AM

    Well D’uh

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