Remember when googling something used to feel like cracking open a door to a whole new world?
Let’s rewind a bit—say, ten years ago. You are sitting at your desk, wondering, “Whey do cats purr?” So, you type it into Google. But instead of getting one tidy answer, you get a buffet of links. You click on a blog written by a vet who adores cats. That blog leads you to a research article. That article makes you curious about animal communication. You read a few Reddit threads where people argue about whether cats are manipulating humans. Then you watch a five-minute YouTube video narrated by a guy with a British accent. Now, somehow, you are reading about tigers, and next thing you know are learning that purring is possibly a form of healing.
Two hours later, you are knee-deep in animal behavior theories, evolutionary biology, and ancient Egyptian art. And you feel…satisfied. Not just because you found the answer, but because you earned it. You explored. You got surprised. You did not just grab info—you lived with it for a while. That’s what learning used to feel like. It was a ride.
Now? It’s Just a Pit Stop
Today, I Google the same question—“Why do cats Purr?”—and boom, AI Overview gave me a neat little summary in bold font at the top of the page.
“Cats purr for a variety of reasons, including to communicate content, self-soothe, or aid in healing. This sound is produced through neural oscillations in the brain that send repetitive signals to the laryngeal muscles.”
I read it. I nodded. I closed the tab.
That’s it.
No rabbit holes. No detours. No surprises. No weird sceince blog with a bizarre theory that makes me laugh but also think, “Could this be true?”
And that, my friend, is the slow death of curiosity.
We’re Getting the Answers, But Losing the Adventure
AI overviews are like fast food for the mind. They are hot, ready, and convenient. We don’t even have to lift a finger (well, maybe one finger to scroll). And in many ways, they are incredible. Don’t get me wrong—technology that can summarize twenty articles into one clean paragraph? That’s impressive. But here is the thing: we humans were not built to live off summaries. We grow through effort. We learn by digging. We remember the things we worked for. AI gives us the answer, sure, but it skips the most important part: the journey. And let’s be real—the joy is in the chase.
Ever Asked a Question Just to End Up Somewhere Completely Different?
This happened all the time when I explored without shortcuts. I Googled “How did the Eiffel Tower get built?” and suddenly I were reading about the rivalry between Gustave Eiffel and other architects, then about Paris in the 1880s, then about the World’s Fair, and then about how people hated the tower at first. I found a personal blog of a woman who lived in Paris for a year and hated the view from her window because “that dumb metal thing ruined the skyline”. I laughed. I learned. I remembered. But with AI overview? I got a couple of neat facts in under ten seconds. “Constructed in 1887-1889, the Eiffel Tower was designed by Gustave Eiffel’s engineering company for the 1889 Explosition Universelle.” Cool. But…that’s it? Where’s the story? Where is the tension, the drama, the irony, the unexpected? I did not find that answer. It was handed to me. And that makes all the difference.
Information Without Involvement
Here is the real issue: AI Overview makes information feel transactional. You ask. It answers. Done.
But learning has never really worked like that. It’s messy. Its emotional. It’s full of dead ends and detours and contradictions. That’s what makes it stick. Think back to when you were a kid and had to do a school project. Maybe you went to the library. Maybe you had to open five different books to find the facts you needed. It was frustrating—but also exciting. When you finally found the right quote, or the perfect image, or that one paragraph that made your topic come alive—you felt a little spark. Compare that to now: you copy and paste a summary. You do not even need to read the whole article. Heck, most people do not even make it past the first link.
We are turning into passive takers of information. Scrollers, not thinkers. Downloaders, not diggers.
Our Brains Love Shortcuts. And That’s the Problem
Let’s not sugarcoat it: our brains are lazy. That’s not an insult—it’s biology. The brain’s main job is to conserve energy. That’s why we love automation. It’s why we keep eating chips even though we said “just one more.” It’s why we click the first link and call it a day. AI Overview is custom-built for this tendency. It delivers quick satisfaction. But satisfaction without engagement is hollow. It’s like eating cotton candy—tastes sweet, but disappears before you even realize what happened.
The more we rely on AI to summarize for us, the less we exercise the parts of our brain responsible for critical thinking, curiosity, and memory. We stop asking follow-up questions. We stop wondering. We stop comparing sources. And slowly, we stop thinking for ourselves.
Ever Heard of “Cognitive Lethargy”?
It’s real thing. Not an official diagnosis, but a growing concern. It’s what happens when we get so used to being fed information that we lose the ability to wrestle with it. We become mentally sluggish. Not stupid, just…uninvolved. We start using words like “vibe” or “I think I heard somewhere?” instead of actually knowing. We forget faster. We feel less connected to the knowledge we absorb. This is not just a learning issue. It’s a living issue. Because how we learn is how we experience the world. If we stop engaging with information, we start engaing from everything else, too.
Okay, Let’s Talk About That Crayon Example Again
I mentioned this earlier, but let me dig in deeper because it’s too good not to. A friend of mine was helping her kid with a school project on the history of crayons. She Googled “When were crayons invented?” and, as expected, AI Overview gave her a neat, no-nonsense answer: Crayons were invented in 1903 by Binney & Smith.”. She repeated that to her kid. Done. But later, her kid asked, “Why 1903? And why did they start with just eight colors? And how did they pick the names?” She had no clue. So, she did the unthinkable: she kept searching. She clicked a few articles. Found a blog that talked about the original crayon color names—like “Maize” and “Carnation Pink”. She discovered that some old color names were changed because they were racially or culturally insensitive. She even watched a video about how crayons are made in factories today.
Now she was not just helping her kid. She was learning herself. She was excited. Later that night, she brought it up at dinner with friends. One of them used to collect vintage crayon boxes as a kid. They talked for 20 minutes. That’s what discovery looks like. Not just reading a sentence—but connecting with it.
More Examples? Oh, I Got ‘Em.
Example 1: Black Holes
I searched “What is a black hole?”
AI said: “A black hole is a region in space where the gravitational pull is so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape from it.”
Cool. But if Had I dived deeper, I might have found mind-blowing stuff: time slows down near black hole. Some theories suggest they could lead to wormholes. There is a supermassive one at the center of our galaxy. And Stephen Hawking once joked about aliens using them as garbage disposals. None of that is in the summary. You have got to go digging.
Example 2: Bananas
Yep, bananas.
I Googled: “Are bananas good for you?”
AI said: “Bananas are high in potassium and a good source of fiber and vitamin B6.”
End of story?
No way. If we Click around and we will learn that the bananas we eat today are not even the original kind. The wild ones had seeds. The current banana—called the Cavendish—is in danger of going extinct because of a fungus. There is a global banana crisis happening right now, and most people have no idea.
Again: not in the overview.
So, What Can We Do?
Do not worry, this is not a “throw your phone in the river and go live in the woods” kind of rant. I am not anti-AI. I am just pro-curiosity. Here is what we can do to keep our minds sharp and our wonder alive:
- Scroll Past the Overview
Yes, the AI Overview is right there. It’s tempting. But resist. Pretend it does not exist. Click on something else. Let your eyes wander. That’s where the magic begins.
- Follow the Weird
Find the blog that looks oddly specific. The Reddit thread with too many comments. The YouTube with a terrible thumbnail but surprisingly good content. Follow the trail.
- Ask “What is Missing?”
Every summary leaves stuff out. Ask what’s not being said. Who’s behind the answer? What perspective is missing? This turns you from a reader into a thinker.
- Talk About What You Learned.
Nothing makes knoweldge stick like sharing it. Tell a friend. Text a sibling. Post a little nugget on social. You will remember it way better, and you might even spark someone else’s curiosity.
In the End, It’s About Ownership
AI overviews can serve us information. But it cannot give us the thrill of discovering it ourselves. It cannot make us gasp, or laugh, or raise your eyebrows. It cannot give us that feeling of “Wait—how did I know this?!” Only we can do that. When we let ourselves get a little lost in learning—when we take our time and let curiosity lead—we are not just collecting facts. We are building connections. We are flexing our brain. We are staying alive inside.
So, Next Time You Google Something…
Skip the overview. Dive into the mess. Read more than one thing. Let a question lead to another. Let ourselves be confused. Let ourselves be amazed. Because when we fight for the answer—even a little—we own it. It becomes part of us. And maybe, just maybe, we will fall in love with learning all over again.
Assistant Professor of Technical & Professional Writing 