Online Journalism: Is Google Knowledge?

9.03.2013

Is Google Knowledge?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCwLQrJz4Bo

Watch, and respond in a comment below...

14 comments:

Danny Golden said...: As seemingly inane as this video is, it really does raise a good point. Is Google (or the internet, for that matter) knowledge? I do not believe that it is, but rather it is a means to gain knowledge. If a person wants to "know" something, there has to be a medium to gain that knowledge. For the vast portion of human history, that mean was a book. I like to think of the internet as a collection of all the books in the world (kind of), so in that regard, the internet is just a modern, more updated version of what people have been using for thousands and thousands of years. But, as this video suggests, knowledge is the intertwining reasoning and connections that a person uses, coupled with fact, to understand something. It is for this reason why I do not think the internet is knowledge but rather a much easier and more convenient catalyst for knowledge, something that a human must produce on their own.; 2:10 PM
Anonymous said...: Obviously, not everything that one searches on Google will translate as a long-term knowledge - often he or she will google something just as a quick search for a temporary cause and forget about it. But in my opinion, it certainly has become a big tool for people to gain knowledge. Google has become "the way" for people to look up the information and more often than not, it offers a mass amount of resources for people to digest that could potentially end up being one's knowledge. I think it does not matter what one uses to gain information from - Google, library, etc. it is how they integrate what they receive that determines the legitimacy of "knowledge". I see Google as more of a "bank of knowldege" than "knowledge" because the search engine's fruits doesn't necessary all translate into knowledge but some do.; 2:23 PM
Unknown said...: The very fact that this type of content we discuss in class is available on YouTube is a topic of interest right from the beginning. I'm going to have to say that no, Google is not knowledge. Google is simply a way to get the puzzle pieces that, once assembled, create knowledge. We typically go on Google to find that one missing puzzle piece - the bit of information we can't remember for the life of us. Then, once we have all the pieces to the puzzle, we have knowledge. We already had most of the ideas, or puzzle pieces, in our brains. We just needed that last missing link to aid us in connecting all the pieces ourselves. Google is not the one that connects all the pieces - we do that. So, I would have to say that since we as humans are the ones doing the work and connecting the pieces, we are knowledge - not Google.; 7:54 PM
Chloe Leshner said...: I think that this video brings up a very interesting argument. However, I do not think that Google can be considered knowledge by any means. There is a difference between being able to recite facts and actually being fully educated and therefore knowledgeable about a topic. However, Google is a key source in seeking knowledge. Its purpose is to help when doing research, trying to remember facts, or to answer a quick question. But, what is found on Google can only be considered the building blocks to knowledge. This does not diminish the importance of Google. Sites on the Internet are definitely necessary to put together the facts and build the connections that can be considered knowledge.; 7:26 PM
Unknown said...: I guess the answer to whether Google is knowledge or not depends on what you consider knowledge to be. In the literal sense of John Locke’s definition of knowledge used in the video, then yes, Google is knowledge: it is a collection of ideas and facts that interact and relate to each other. However, our whole lives we think of knowledge as a conceptual characteristic; we are very accustomed to thinking of knowledge as something you learn from a book or through school and that being knowledgeable is synonymous with intelligence. I think it is hard for us to view Google, and the Internet in general, as knowledge since we are so used to thinking of knowledge as being a characteristic of a person, not a search engine. Therefore, I personally do not view Google as knowledge. I view it as more of a means to gain knowledge, much like a book. I look at Google as an important provider of knowledge and a key component of our daily lives.; 9:35 PM
Fatimah Waseem said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12:05 PM
Natalie Tomlin said...: I think it is a bit of a stretch to say that Google is knowledge because no matter how easily we can learn information via the Internet, true knowledge is still something that comes from a human, not a computer. Google serves as a speedy means of eventually having knowledge, but its true function is to provide us with facts and information. Once we obtain the facts or information that we seek out when searching on Google, we still decide what to do with what we have read. We can either dismiss the random fact and forget about it, or we can use the new information to analyze, think critically and make connections to become knowledgable about a particular subject. Like the video showed, Google is just like a library in that it is filled with information on different topics that we can seek out and read up on. You can read a bunch of books and recite the facts, but if you can't go further than that, are you really knowledgable in the subject? Others who define knowledge differently may say Google, itself, is knowledge, but I still think no matter how technologically advanced we become, our brains are still the final key to becoming knowledgable individuals. Google is just speeding up that process at a rate that was once unimaginable.; 10:37 PM
Fatimah Waseem said...: Is Google knowledge? The Roman philosopher Seneca answered this question 2,000 years ago: “To be everywhere is to be nowhere.” Despite its speed, breadth, and cohesiveness, the search engine promotes thinking full of velocity, but with little depth. It is an information provider, not a knowledge enhancer.

Of course, Google is not knowledge the same way a library is not knowledge. But with millions of online pages, does Google make us think? After making the switch from what I affectionately call a “dumb” phone to a smart phone, I no longer feel the novelty effect of learning something new. Clicking through links doesn’t link multiple ideas in my mind, what John Locke defines as knowledge. In fact, studies show the average person spends less than 45 seconds on pages with links. The pool of knowledge may be deeper than ever before, increasing the chances of being overpowered by a flood of information.

Here’s the irony. I reworded the first sentence of this comment from a Wall Street Journal article. How? I googled “Is Google knowledge?” Therein lies the problem. Consumers can know without knowing, an illusion of knowledge that may be a greater enemy to human progress than ignorance itself.; 2:11 PM
Jasmine Song said...: This video brings up a good argument about whether Google can be considered knowledge, but there is a clear difference between knowledge itself and vessels that allow us to access knowledge. That being said, I definitely see Google as more of a library of information with a compilation of other people’s knowledge and ideas. Knowledge is what people create themselves through their own experiences and understandings of certain ideas and concepts. However, Google does not have the capability to do that. All of the information that Google gives us access to as a search engine is from those people who have knowledge about what it is they are talking about and releasing through the Internet. Google may be able to allow us to attain that knowledge, but that is all. It’s merely a medium through which we can get information.; 2:55 PM
Unknown said...: As my classmates have said, I think the video is an interesting one, but it definitely is too much to say that Google actually has knowledge itself. Google, or any other search engines or websites, is simply our generation's link to information. It is a tool that imparts knowledge from the contributors on one website to us when we read them. The video did make a very good point when he said that it was easy to get distracted by the Internet, which is completely true. Because there is so much information, both true and false, for us to sift through, it makes it more difficult for people to gain correct knowledge.; 11:58 AM
Unknown said...: The concept of this video is very interesting. The guy lays out a complicated, but understandable argument for Google representing knowledge. I found myself agreeing with many of his points, like how he said that Google is just a different way of obtaining knowledge like one would obtain at a library. However, to state that Google is knowledge might be too far a stretch. It's a helpful tool for gathering information, but does the search engine itself actually increase how much one knows? And to that end, there's no real way of verifying and quantifying that Google does this, so declaring that Google is knowledge seems inaccurate.; 1:59 AM
Tim Drummond said...: The argument presented in the video is ultimately a semantic one. The presenter attempts to define knowledge in a way that relates it directly to Google. But to say that Google IS knowledge is a bit of a stretch. I would even say it's a stretch to declare that a library IS knowledge. Google, like libraries, is much more complicated than that, encompassing knowledge, opinion, misinformation, entertainment, propaganda and just about anything else that can be typed on a keyboard. Furthermore, Google is simply an aggregation of the Internet and contains very little original content. So while Google can be a path or tool to attain knowledge, the argument that Google IS knowledge is a bit oversimplified.; 10:01 AM
Unknown said...: The video demonstrated for me how a search engine has made available seemingly endless information that is often taken for granted by our generation because the technological age has made it second nature to "google" anything worth knowing at that particular time. However, while the ability to obtain information is easier and more efficient than it has ever been in history, I do not feel that this means google is knowledge. It is merely the vehicle through which knowledge can be accessed and potentially stored by the individuals who use it. The video argues that people today are not storing the information they access via Google as they know that it will be there whenever they want to look it up once again. While Google provides the tools necessary for knowledge to be obtained, similar to a library, it is up to the person using the search engine to put that information into use. It is impossible to quantify how much of what is searched on Google is maintained as long-term knowledge, but it is incorrect to consider Google a knowledge entity in its own right simply due to its proficient nature relative to information-seeking tools of the past. I would also argue that it takes a large measure of knowledge from the individual to know how and what to search for on Google to fulfill their own knowledge base.; 10:38 AM
Marquis Goodwin said...: Is Google knowledge? At first glance, just the mere uttering of the posed question spews ignorance. But if one delves deeper into what defines knowledge, then using the terms knowledge and Google interchangeably is not as much of a reach. By some definitions knowledge, or to know, is synonymous with being aware. For instance, I am aware that two plus two equals four; hence, I know or have knowledge of that equation. From that same train of thought comes the idea that Google can make one aware of similar facts. If one wants to become aware of who is the tallest woman on the University of Maryland’s women’s basketball team a simple Google search would solve such inquires. But did Google make one aware or did it rather provide possible facts for one to make knowledge of? The way I see it Google is a site of aggregation. Google provides information one must cypher through and then make knowledge of. Take for instance my math equation example. While yes, Google will solve that equation, what does that actually mean? If one does not recognize the sum, four, is actually the accumulation of the two separate parts of two, he or she does not have knowledge. He or she is then just regurgitating facts. That is not knowledge. Like the clip, I am a firm believer that knowledge is the connection of facts to make meaning. Google provides the possibility to gain knowledge in the same way a library or a personal experience provides that possibility. It is all out there but it is up to the individual to make use of what is provided.; 11:55 AM