The Battle of Memory: Is Technology Helping or Hindering our Memory?
By Kadance Rice
Have you ever found yourself scrolling on your phone and wondering how people used to live without them? How did people store phone numbers or special dates? In today’s society, phones and other technological devices play a big part in our everyday lives. With the use of these everyday technologies, questions are being raised about how our accessibility to the internet affects memory. Technology and social media are a great way to communicate and connect with others as well as accessing networking opportunities. People have easy access to anything at their fingertips. While most people think this is a good thing, it is important to proceed with caution.
Many students don’t have to worry about remembering mundane information or even some information learned in class because they can access that information from their technology. The experience of forgetting information that you expect your device to remember is called “digital amnesia” ( Eble, 2016). According to the Scientific American Mind (2021), although this term is not recognized scientifically, many cognitive researchers agree that relying less on recalling information leads to less neural connections being created which causes weakening or standstills in our learning ( Sketka, 2021). However, the use of storage for things such as phone numbers, dates, and passwords can free up space in the brain to give more attention to different attention required tasks. The increased use of google and other search engines, especially in student learning can be detrimental. Using Google to search for an answer you do not know is not inherently wrong but what you do with that information can be detrimental to your memory. Google can stop the recall that organically comes when trying to answer a question by giving you an answer. It is important to recall information learned on google and connect it to previously known information in order to make the concept more concrete in your brain.
Another struggle humans face with technology is the idea of social media and multitasking. With the prominence of technology today, it can lead to overuse in your everyday lives. Things such as texting and driving have been raising issue among the United States over recent years. Research suggests that “media multitasking” can lead to impaired attention in young adults, as well as their ability to recall specific situations or experiences.
Sketka (2021), explains an experiment done to measure multitasking focused on electroencephalography (an experimental technique scientists use to measure brain activity) and eye tracking to identify attentional span in individuals. By looking at the participants brain and eye response, the experiment concluded that higher reported media multitasking correlated with more attentional lapses during the experiment. This shows us that even though some students believe that they are good “multitaskers” they are just doing a worse job at two different tasks at once. Studies like this enforce the idea that memory is impacted negatively by multitasking.
I hope that the points brought up can help you become a better consumer of media in your daily life. Using the information to your advantage can improve your memory by learning how to be more mindful when it comes to technology. Some tips to help with digital amnesia would be working on actively recalling information after accessing it. Students can do this is by self-testing and working on actively recalling information learned in class. Another way to improve your memory as a student is by limiting reliance on your personal devices by doing your work without search engines unless you absolutely need them. The best way to keep and strengthen memory is by continuing to challenge your brain through continued learning and memory exercises. We also learned that multitasking often hinders a person’s ability to complete a task to the best of their abilities. Next time you feel like checking your phone while driving or turning the tv on while studying I want you to remember what you learned while reading this information.
References
Eble, J. (2024, November 13). Digital amnesia. Penn State News. https://www.psu.edu/news/impact/story/digital-amnesia
(Sketka) Scientific American Mind. (2021, January). Scientific American Mind, January 2021. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/issue/mind/2021/01-01/