The Google effect, also known as digital amnesia, is our tendency to forget information we know we can easily search for again online. Instead of memorising the content itself, our mind mostly remembers where to find it. Our memory, in other words, starts outsourcing part of its work to our devices.
A familiar example: how many phone numbers do you know by heart today? Before mobile phones, we knew dozens; now we may count them on one hand. The same happens with addresses, dates, even facts we read yesterday but forgot, because deep down we know a quick search is enough.
Psychologically, this is not simply bad memory. It is an adaptive way for the brain to save resources. The question is what we lose when we outsource too much: deep thinking, associations, and creativity need knowledge that lives inside us, not only knowledge accessible with a click. When our attention is constantly fragmented, we struggle both to retain and to connect.
We do not need to demonise technology; we need to choose consciously when we use it and when we let our mind work on its own. If you feel the screen has taken too much space from your attention and memory, read more about dependence on screens and AI.