Text 1 OK, Google, Where Did I Put My Thinking Cap? Take a look at this question: How do modern novels represent the characteristics of humanity? If you were tasked with answering it, what would your first step be? Would you scribble down your thoughts or would you Google it? Terry Heick, a former English teacher in Kentucky, had a surprising revelation when his eighth- and ninth-grade students quickly turned to Google. "What they would do is they would start Googling the question, 'How does a novel represent humanity?" Heick says. "That was a real eye-opener to me."... Heick had intended for his students to take a moment to think, figure out what type of information they needed, how to evaluate the data and how to reconcile conflicting viewpoints. He did not intend for them to immediately Google the question, word by word eliminating the process of critical thinking. More Space To Think Or Less Time To Think? There is a relative lack of research available examining the effect of search engines on our brains even as the technology is rapidly dominating our lives. Of the studies available, the answers are sometimes unclear. Some argue that with easy access to information, we have more space in our brain to engage in creative activities, as humans have in the past. ... Daphne Bavelier, a professor at the University of Geneva, wrote in 2011 that we may have lost the ability for oral memorization valued by the Greeks when writing was invented, but we gained additional skills of reading and text analysis. Writer Nicholas Carr contends that the Internet will take away our ability for contemplation due to the plasticity of our brains. He wrote about the subject in a 2008 article for The Atlantic titled "Is Google Making Us Stupid." "...what the [Internet] seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation," Carr wrote.... 'I'm Always On My Computer' Michele Nelson, an art teacher at Estes Hills Elementary School in Chapel Hill, N.C., seems to share Carr's concerns. Nelson, who has been teaching for more than nine years, says it was obvious with her middle school students and even her 15-year-old daughter that they are unable to read long texts anymore. "They just had a really hard time comprehending if they went to a website that had a lot of information," Nelson says. "They couldn't grasp it, they couldn't figure out what the important thing was."... The bright side lies in a 2009 study conducted by Gary Small, the director of University of California Los Angeles' Longevity Center, that explored brain activity when older adults used search engines. He found that among older people who have experience using the Internet, their brains are two times more active than those who don't when conducting Internet searches.... For Small, the problem for younger people is the overuse of the technology that leads to distraction. Otherwise, he is excited for the new innovations in technology.