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Our brains have taken a back seat to the Internet as our main memory source, according to a US study.
Researchers at Harvard University found people are using the internet as an external hard drive, in the same we use external memory devices for our computers.
Having Google and Wikipedia at our fingertips means we can access information in seconds - we are becoming experts at knowing how to source information.
But this also means we are relieved of the need to memorise data.
Harvard University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Columbia University researchers in the US conducted four tests to check their theory.
Those tested were given a trivia quiz and researchers analysed whether participants recognised computer-related words more quickly than other words.
In another test, researchers looked at whether people could memorise 40 pieces information they would typically have looked up on the Internet.
The final two tests checked whether people were more capable of remembering where to find information online than what the actual content was.
The researchers found some participants actively did not make the effort to remember when they thought they could later look up the trivia statements they had read.
Other results showed that if a person knows they can access the Internet continuously, they are better at remembering where to find information than the information itself.
In concluding the study, the paper said: "The advent of the Internet, with sophisticated algorithmic search engines, has made accessing information as easy as lifting a finger.
"The Internet has become a primary form of external or transactive memory, where information is stored collectively outside ourselves."
