Google is Killing Parenthood

Tristan, my son, doesn’t believe in what I tell him. My life’s instruction book seems to be outdated. Whatever I say seems to be wrong or, most importantly, obsolete. “I Googled it, your theories about life are wrong”?—?he loves to tell my wife and I, “Your way of thinking is outdated.” The point is he just doesn’t Google things, he looks for the latest content: 2016 seems to be a great vintage for him when it comes to knowledge. Wait, did I say knowledge or information?

2016 seems to be a great vintage for my son when it comes to knowledge

Like my son, many of us miss the point that Google mainly provides information in the form of news, tutorials, videos, life lessons, you name it. That’s pretty clear based on Google’s mission statement: “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”. You see, information. It doesn’t say ‘provide knowledge’. This is precisely what I want to address: do we recognize the difference?

“Search Me Something I Don’t Know”

Watching DIY videos won’t turn you into an artist

My short-term memory is not precisely one of my superpowers: retaining facts, especially names, is hard for me. May be that’s why I’m so amazed at see my son talking about a specific topic?—?no matter how complicated- for hours after hour. He just watches and can then share specific details non-stop as if he had been studying the subject forever. But knowledge is way more than that. Without underestimating the power of empowerment, having easier access to information doesn’t mean necessarily that we know how to do anything. Knowledge is more than facts and data, it requires a practical understanding of the subject: to put it in practice. Watching DIY videos on cubism painting techniques, memorizing all the method, won’t turn you into an artist. Artists learn by doing. And it takes years of practice to master something.

The Illusion of Knowledge

Information on the Internet makes us feel limitless: we can prove right or wrong any theory we want.

I’m excited to be living in this moment in time. It’s a strange era where all paradigms are being challenged while we search for the new one. The value of expertise is at risk: we expect to get someone else’s knowledge for free. And we live in an era of shortcuts: the shortest route is at the tip of our fingers (thanks again Google for delivering on your mission). Trying to make everything simpler, we face a risk: the danger of oversimplification. The hacking mentality is good but can easily turn into a deceiving mentality.

Information on the Internet makes us feel limitless: we can prove right or wrong any theory we want. And we can also the become the victim. Take diets for example. From no-carbs to no-fun, the diet of the week comes to save our day (and bellies). And we jump into it simply after reading a headline. We don’t validate our decision looking for alternative sources (a behavior related to knowledge). We love shortcuts, right? It seems that, the more access we have to information, the more stupid we become. Only 8.5% of web traffic makes it past the first page of Google’s search results. Easy access to information has made us becomeup intellectually lazy.

Yoda, Buddha and the Internet

Our society is looking for another kind of “authority“ one that is not limited to owning information or power.

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