Leftpedal

Further reading related to the previous post on Wikipedia in the newsroom, please see the following:

What did I do before Google and Wikipedia? Can I even remember? I’ve tried to hearken back to those dark days, looking at some “before” and “after” scenes from my life — in the areas of knowledge acquisition and daily tasks, what I mostly use the Internet for — and the contrast is striking. Google and Wikipedia have made me impatient and spoiled for instant information gratification, and the enjoyment of leisurely seeking has given way to an appetite for fast finding.

and

Google is “white bread for the mind”, and the internet is producing a generation of students who survive on a diet of unreliable information, a professor of media studies will claim this week.
In her inaugural lecture at the University of Brighton, Tara Brabazon will urge teachers at all levels of the education system to equip students with the skills they need to interpret and sift through information gleaned from the internet.
She believes that easy access to information has dulled students’ sense of curiosity and is stifling debate. She claims that many undergraduates arrive at university unable to discriminate between anecdotal and unsubstantiated material posted on the internet.

What DID I do before Google? Oh geez. What did I do before Gmail? Or Yahoo mail? I find myself searching through emails to find out what I did and when I did it. For this past week. For 5 years ago. It’s become my default memory. I’ve documented only some of my life through these conversations and emails to friends and family members. If I can’t find it in my old email logs, did it really happen? Can I actually recall things as quickly anymore since the computer is doing so much for me now?