Is too much Google making us dumb?

Technology can induce intellectual decay when we become mindless consumers of data. Photo: Reuters

Warning! Reading this article online could lead to stupidity. But not because I’ve written something that might cause you to lose more brain cells than you normally would on any given day. I’m not that clever. The only way I can make you “less clever” is by keeping you online for as long as possible.

When you read text online, there’s a good chance you’ll be exposed to a number of distractions at the same time. These usually come in the form of hypertext links, banners, videos, tabs, pop-up ads, and sidebars teeming with “goodies”, all of which vie for your attention.