9 years ago
7
Digital dependence 'eroding human memory'
An over-reliance on using computers and search engines is weakening people's memories, according to a study. It showed many people use computers instead of memorising information. Many adults who could still recall their phone numbers from childhood could not remember their current work number or numbers of family members.
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http://www.bbc.com
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it's inaccurate to say it's Eroding, it's just the way we store information in our memory is changing. we no longer need to remember all these little details but we are excellent at remembering where we've stored this information to access it.
Studies done show that people who are told the information won't be available after it's taken away still remember the information given just as well as before and those who are told the information is accessible afterwards don't remember the information itself but do recall (with higher accuracy than the other group) where and how to access what they need.
We're not eroding our ability to remember, we're outsourcing the storage to a more reliable electronic medium.
I'm glad someone pointed this out. It's really easy to fall into scaremongering, and it's also really easy to not realize how imperfect our memory can be.
exactly. If our memory was as infallible as everyone seems to be making out in this and other similar articles we wouldn't be so easily affected by things like Gaslighting and other memory manipulation techniques.
Thanks to electronic devices we have greater memory than we ever had. You only have to look up random conversations on skype or gtalk or whatever from as far back as you like; guaranteed you forgot you'd talked to a person about a subject but once you read it back you're more than likely to get a ping in the memory and smile and think "oh yeah!"
Can you name all your first school year's classmates off the top of your head from 2 decades or more ago? And while looking at the class photograph you're more likely to name them all. Depending how good your name recall is to begin with granted.
Took some digging, but I found "research" the article alludes to, added to related links.