[article] People relying on technology to remember things

madscientist

Interesting...

LONDON (Reuters) - Can't remember life before mobiles? Chances are you'll also struggle to recall your home phone number and family birthdays.

According to a survey released Friday, the boom in mobiles and portable devices that store reams of personal information has created a generation incapable of memorizing simple things.

A quarter of those polled said they couldn't remember their landline number, while two-thirds couldn't recall the birthdays of more than three friends or family members.

The tech-savvy young fared worse than older people. The under-30s could remember fewer birthdays and numbers than the over-50s, according to the survey.

Two-thirds said they relied on their phone or electronic organizer to remember key dates.

"People have more to remember these days and they are relying on technology more for their memory," said Ian Robertson, professor of psychology at Trinity College, Dublin.

Researchers polled 3,000 people over the last two weeks in the survey for Puzzler Brain Trainer magazine.

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSKUA35713420070713

siuying

so is that a good thing or a bad thing? =)

here's my take on it.. i find it uneccessary to remember things that can be accessed and retrieved in books, internet or electronic devices.. so you might have your best frd's bday imprinted in the back of your mind.. but it's not like you're gonna get a prize for rmbing it.. however.. that is not to say you should forget your frd's bdays.. i just find it more efficient to utilize the resources around you to help you manage your life..especially when we also hold the power to forget.. @_@ i mark down important dates in my cellphone and PC so i get reminders.. after all.. what's more embarassing than completely forgetting your frd's bday or your interview?

our brain can only retain a certain amount of information.. with what technology has to offer.. make it count by having your brain memorize things that can't be accessed with technology.. that's one of the reasons why i hated my socials teacher for forcing us to rmb when christopher columbus sailed the ocean blue.. or when the titanic sank and remembering all the formulas in calculus..=.=" all this info can be found and accessed.. there's no need for memorization..

what do other ppl think?

baby e

I dont think its that hard to remember someone's birthday. We're getting lazy and relying on technology for too many things is a bad thing. We don't remember anything anymore....we just use google or whatever else to find our information for us.

In the past, people used to remember things, they didnt store it in computers for reference later on. Yes, its convenient for some things, but in my opinion i dont think that remembering a birthday is a strenuous task. Its not that hard to remember that you have an important interview on Friday at 3pm. Its just not that hard. People are too lazy. And what will you all do if your computers suddenly crash on you? "Oh no, i dont remember when my dad's bday was!!"

Use your memory to remember important things like that.

Magnificent_Bastard

I don't see how the story is telling us anything new. I see technology as just another method of storing information. It's not like before cellphones, we had absolutely NO method of recording information such as birthdays and phone numbers. Day planners? Rolodex's? Carving images and words into stone tablets? Cellphones just make that information more readily available because we have it with us all the time, and we can leave our heavy, inconvenient stone tablets at home.

And as for the older folk (50+) remembering more birthdays and numbers, remember that they've had 20 more years of rehearsal with those numbers and dates. You might not remember your mother-in-law's birthday when you're 30, but after 20 years of the same birthday and your wife nagging at you for forgetting it, you better believe you'll remember it by then. Same with numbers.

I think this is just one of those useless articles jumping on the whole "TECHNOLOGY IS EVIL" bandwagon. Just a thought

中国&#30

Ever take a picture with that special someone and look at it in a photo album or portrait? Maybe that photo is stored in your wallet and at times, you bring it out and gaze at the moment it was taken. We can take pictures with our mobile phones and view them on the LCD screen. Why develop the negatives at a photo store when instead you can see the picture just as you take them.

Link those pictures to an address book or contact list and you'll always have a name to match a face. Under that name is a birthday, address, phone #, anniversary or whatever. Hey, this information used to be stored in a day book that business people used to carry around. All the monthly and yearly calendar appointments and special days are stored there.

A mobile pda that has a contact list, calendar, camera, thumbing keyboard and a QVGA screen is what that article is referring to. Looks like I got to get myself a Blackberry Curve.

Magnificent_Bastard

Was there a point hidden somewhere in there?

siuying

@baby e: that's why i mark it in more than one place.. =) i even mark it down on the calendar in pen just in case my cellphone and PC crash on me..

Kevin M.

I think the article is interesting in that it points out our dependence on technology. You may not think it's a big deal, but we lose what we don't use ie. our brain or the part of it that stores random numbers