Who did your grandfather go to when he needed information? Most likely his father. Where did your father go when he needed information? Again, probably his father. Now, where do you and I go when we need information? Most of us would probably say Google.

In writing this article I wanted to make a point that as we get more digitally connected we stop relying on our family and friends for information. I thought it would be cool to put some data behind that idea and I would have an awesome marketing article, right? The problem is that I was wrong—This article just got a lot more interesting.

In this article, I’ll show you what I found, explain why I was wrong, and tell you what that means for us.

In order to prove my point, I needed to show that search engines were gaining in popularity and that the millennial generation is going less to their family and friends for advice. I started my research by jumping into multiple databases trying to find credible information backed by data. The problem that I ran into with my research is that no matter how long or far I looked, I couldn’t find evidence of this. In fact, I started finding information contrary to the point I wanted to prove.

As it turns out, these college age students have actually started to think of their parents as informal advisors when they need to make important academic and career decisions, according to Javeed (2010). Actually, 45 percent of students will call, text, or email their parents on a daily basis! They like this level of involvement from their parents; they rely on it frequently as it makes them feel safer in these important decisions. Why? Quigley (2016) says that an increased use of technology is thought to be one of the most obvious causes of this social trend. She notes that these students are leaving home but never really need to separate from their parents when they all have cell phones in their pockets and can call at any moment with no additional cost.

We now know that millennials communicate with parents more, not less. So does that mean that Google is just a fad that will die out as people connect more with their families for information? Well, no that’s not true either. Google reported 2012 as a record year for new searches, coming in at 1.2 trillion averaging around 100 billion per month (Google, 2013).

Unfortunately, that was the last report that Google has put out which doesn’t tell us anything about the recent growth pattern I was searching for. Luckily there is a third party, comScore, that has published reports on search engine history. comScore’s report shows that from December 2012 (Lella, 2013) to December 2014 (Lella, 2015) search traffic has increased by 3.4%. So no, it doesn’t appear that Google is just a fad, but what does that mean for us?

This answer puzzled me for days when I finally stumbled upon the article “Google Effects on Memory: Cognitive Consequences of Having Information at Our Fingertips” by Sparrow (2011). The team of scientists working on this ran a number of experiments and found out three key things. They found out that as (1) people discover that they need information, they think first of the computer, (2) we remember things best that we don’t think will be available later, and (3) we identify where an item has been stored better than what that item was. With this information, things start to make sense.

Millennials continue going back to their parents because they are a trusted source of information and they slowly learn that their parents know more than they gave them credit for. They will keep going back for both the information they have forgotten and to learn more about important decisions as Javeed taught us earlier. The same goes for Google. If they know that they can do a simple search again and find the same information easily, they are less likely to remember it. That will cause them to continue coming back for that information and Google continues as their number one resource for new information.

In August 2013, all Google servers went down for a total of five minutes, but in just this small amount of time global web traffic went down by 40 percent, as reported by Bell (2013). We have become dependent on the knowledge we get from the Internet the same way we are dependent on the knowledge we get from our family, friends, and parents. The experience of losing an internet connection is quickly becoming more and more like the experience of losing a friend, a family member, or a parent.

As we’ve seen, people are becoming more dependent on the paths they use to get their information. What does that mean for us as marketers? We need to start thinking more about how we can influence that inner circle of family and friends that will eventually influence the audience we are marketing towards. If they are already going to social media for information we need to be on social media and become a reliable source for them. Once you can build that image in their mind they will continue coming back to you for both past and future information. Our goal is to become a member of their inner circle of friends and family, almost like a parent. Your goal is to become their father, their patriarch, their ultimate source.

References

Bell, L. (2016). Google Goes Down for Five Minutes, Web Traffic Plunges 40 Percent. Retrieved from http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2289637/google-goes-down-for-five-minutes-web-traffic-plunges-40-percent

Google. Zeitgeist 2012. Retrieved from https://www.google.com/zeitgeist/2012/#the-world

Javeed, S., Bruschke, K., & Chen, E. (2010). Bringing the Message Home: Teaching Effective Communication to Students and Parents. Retrieved from NACADA Clearinghouse of Academic Advising Resources Web site http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/tabid/3318/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/165/article.aspx

Lella, A. (2013). comScore Releases December 2012 U.S. Search Engine Rankings. Retrieved from http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Press-Releases/2013/1/comScore-Releases-December-2012-US-Search-Engine-Rankings

Lella, A. (2015). comScore Releases December 2014 U.S. Desktop Search Engine Rankings. Retrieved from http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Market-Rankings/comScore-Releases-December-2014-US-Desktop-Search-Engine-Rankings

Quigley, M. W. (2016). Keeping the Lines of Communication Open with Millennials. Retrieved from http://www.aarp.org/ home-family/friends-family/blogs/info-2016/millennials-communication-with-parents.html

Sparrow, B., Liu, J., & Wegner, D. M. (2011). Google effects on memory: Cognitive Consequences of Having Information at our Fingertips. Science, 333(6043), 776-778. doi:10.1126/science.1207745