How Google Changed Society's Expectations of Mass Media & Culture

Let's travel back in a time a bit... about 15-20 years ago. A intrusive thought pops into your head, a question, that you don't immediately know the answer to. When was the Gettysburg Address? You become so frustrated that you cannot recall this date from the numerous history classes you took in school. Maybe you need the date for an assignment for class, or to win and argument with a friend. Either way, to find the answer to this question you have to take a trip to the local library. You spend hours digging through books and encyclopedias. You know that Abraham Lincoln gave the address sometime during the Civil War, which was in the 1800s and that is what you have to go on. You pick up book after book, shifting through pages until you find it: November 19, 1863 (History.com Editors, 2010). 

 (Defiance College, 2020)

Meanwhile, for the purpose of this blog, I simply typed “Gettysburg Address date” into my Google search bar, and within seconds I found my answer. This is the impact and the effect that Google has had on today’s society. No longer do we have to spend hours researching books in the library, all the information we could need is now at our fingertips. How Google was able to accomplish this was through enabling searching of words or terms through their database, unlocking information that before the user would not even be able to find because they did not know where it was located (Rivera, 2016). “With Google, you could find any needle in any haystack at any time” (Rivera, 2016). 

 (Google, 2020)

Through unlocking information at our fingertips at any time has created a 24/7 news cycle that the mass media has had to keep up with. There is a newly formed co-dependence with our media devices. We are constantly on our phones and the internet, keeping ourselves entertained and informed. The internet, and in part Google, are becoming a part of people’s daily schedules, with Google being utilized to look up the current news of the day and other random intrusive thoughts that randomly pop into one's head during the day. Who plays the the father in The Greatest Showman? What is the capital of South Africa? Where can I get the best taco in Orlando, FL? All these answers and more can be found through a quick Google search. Sam Dolnick of The New York Times admits to scrolling through his phone looking at news updates from various sources, reading articles while on this daily commute to work (Dolnick, 2018). People have become co-dependent to our mobile devise and fulfilling this need of receiving information at the touch of a button, but it does not come without its share of limitations.

There are limitations to the endless access of information. Without a curation process of the information by trained journalists, misinformation and rumors can appear in a google search, leading the reader to untrue information (Rivera, 2016). Unlocking a world of information through the click of a button has also introduced the world to new era of "fake news." Readers must approach a Google search with caution and objectivity to avoid any potential of sharing false information.

References:

Defiance College. (2020). Finding Information, Types of Sources. Defiance College. Retrieved from:https://library.defiance.edu/InfoLit-sourcesofinfo/types 

Dolnick, S. (2018). Tapping Technology to Advance the Future of Journalism. The New York Times. Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/03/technology/personaltech/technology-future-journalism.html

Google. (2020). "Search Results for 'Gettysburg Address date'". Google. Retrieved from: https://www.google.com/search?bih=521&biw=1280&hl=en&sxsrf=ALeKk02_XbkPUPEPz85pp7OC3rcIGwBhAg%3A1604019598864&source=hp&ei=jmWbX9LnMeOn5wKRrqboCw&q=Gettysburg+Address+date&oq=Gettysburg+Address+date&gs_lcp=CgZwc3ktYWIQAzIFCAAQyQMyAggAMgYIABAWEB46BAgjECc6BAguECc6BAguEEM6BQgAEJECOggIABCxAxCDAToFCAAQsQM6CgguEMkDECcQkwI6BAgAEEM6CwguELEDEMcBEKMCOgcILhCxAxBDOggILhCxAxCRAjoKCC4QxwEQrwEQQzoLCC4QsQMQxwEQrwE6BQguELEDOgoIABCxAxAUEIcCOgIILjoHCAAQFBCHAjoKCAAQyQMQFBCHAlC5CFiHZGD4aGgBcAB4AIAB2wGIAZgUkgEGMTQuNi4zmAEAoAEBqgEHZ3dzLXdpeg&sclient=psy-ab&ved=0ahUKEwjS5pnTjtvsAhXj01kKHRGXCb0Q4dUDCAk&uact=5

History.com Editors. (2010). President Lincoln delivers Gettysburg Address. History. A&E Television Networks. Retrieved from: https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/lincoln-delivers-gettysburg-address

Rivera, M. (2016). How Google Has Changed the World. Entrepreneur. Retrieved from: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/283085