Will Google be the demise of critical thinking?

It's been said before that excellent tools and access to them can actually lead to less intelligent students and practitioners of any craft. From the high school student to the accountant, is this premise correct? After all, the abacus and the pocket calculator changed the face of math. Could Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) change the face of critical thinking in its users?

According to a study out of University College London, so much quality access to instant information could be responsible for hampering the ability of many to become quality thinkers. It's a rather interesting premise: Google, known for employing more smart people than any other public company, is contributing to the dumbing down of its customers.

Are those born after 1990 really jeopardizing their critical thinking skills by searching for any and all information on anything using Google? The study mentioned the lack of critical and analytical skills among young people, students, professors, lecturers, and "practitioners" as they all have grown accustomed to "searching horizontally rather than vertically." This is in reference, I think, to those that read headlines but don't drill down into the real content.

Wow -- instant gratification comes to the web. Surprised? You shouldn't be. The web's instant reach to so much has really pushed the concept of on-demand access to new heights. The study also indicated that those in the 12-to-15 age bracket did indeed understand what intellectual property meant -- but that copyright protection procedures were unfair.