Technology and Our Memory: Can We Find a Balance?

Author: Micah Singleton
Published: January 05, 2012 at 12:33 pm

As I sat down to write my first article of 2012, I still had not decided on a subject. As I pondered, I quickly grabbed my iPhone. It had been about a week since I read any sort of news about technology, and I had completely blanked on what to write about. In one week, I had forgotten what the current news was, in the occupation I chose as my career. Sure, I remembered the major stories like SOPA, but every topic that didn't have the capability to ‘destroy the Internet,’ had slipped my mind in a week. And I now know why.

I, and the majority of those reading this, rely on technology devices so much, that it has become essentially apart of our brains. Things that we used to have to remember — phone numbers, addresses, birthdays, even some names — we can’t recall anymore, at lease not without some assistance. These memories are now stored in our “external brains,” better known as our smartphones.

Back in 2007, Ben Quinn of The Telegraph wrote an article on a study that stated that mobile devices were “dumbing down brain power.” The study, conducted in the UK, states that,
“A quarter of all Britons do not know their own landline number, while as little as a third can recall more than three birthdays of their immediate family.”

That article was written in July of 2007, months before the original iPhone was released in the UK, and over a year before an Android device was even available. To say that the study is outdated is an understatement, but the premise is as relevant as ever. We rely so much on these devices — devices that have enhanced our lives in a multitude of ways — that if they were taken away, or decommissioned abruptly, we would be in serious trouble.

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