The ill effects of World Wide Web on the Google Generation: An analysis and criticism of ways in which the World Wide Web is altering young learners’ cognitive behaviors

While this paper values the different ways in which the World Wide Web is making data ubiquitous and more accessible, it questions some of its subtle yet destructive effects on the Google Generation/those born after 1993. This paper will look over the learners’ interactions with online information, analyze the negative behavioral and psychological consequences caused by these interactions, question the consequences and in each case ask that designers of online experiences be more careful as they make design decisions when creating online interfaces. This paper poses the following research question: “How can the design of online activities on the World Wide Web positively affect the Google Generation’s ability to focus, socialize, and think deeply? Most importantly, this presentation seeks to stir discourse that agree and/or disagree with the idea that the World Wide Web is negatively affecting the Google Generation’s—those born after 1993—wellbeing. It hopes that discourse will lead to possible solutions to the current and increasing problem relating to attention, memory, patience, stress, and critical thinking in young learners.