New Study Finds Smartphones And The Internet Cause ‘Digital Amnesia’
According to a new study by the software security group Kaspersky Lab, smartphones and the Internet could be destroying our memories and giving us “digital amnesia.”
Out of 1,000 participants, the study found most people don’t even bother attempting to memorize or recall information, instead turning to the Internet or their smartphone for the answers. Researchers suggest that could hurt our ability to use our memory at all.
Approximately 91 percent of the people surveyed said they use the Internet as an online extension of their brain. Almost half stated their smartphone serves as their memory — everything they need to recall, including phone numbers, is on it.
While many participants could not remember important current phone numbers a majority were able to recall phone numbers from their childhood, suggesting their memories were better before smartphones.
Dr. Malaz Boustani of the Healthy Aging Center at Eskenazi Health, who was not affiliated with the study, does not feel there is a reason to panic about the Internet’s impact on the brain, however.
“I think you should start thinking about, ‘How can I leverage the Internet and devices even more to expand the opportunity of my brain?’” stated Dr. Boustani. “We are not using as much power of our brain as the potential of our brain, and I think the Internet can open a lot of doors for us.”
He stated that he uses the Internet to help patients at risk for developing Alzheimer’s with brain exercises. He also feels that the Internet is more trustworthy than our brains, which can mix up memories or be clouded by time, medications and other factors.
“A great example is the testimony of witnesses. That’s common that you can’t depend on a human to tell you the truth because they have filters that make it unreliable,” said Dr. Boustani. “What the Internet is teaching us, it’s really upgrading our most precious part of our brain.”
An additional finding was that many people who participated in the study felt so dependent on their devices they panicked at the thought of losing them and the memories stored on them. Participants also weren’t doing much to protect their information online, as less than a third of those surveyed used any type of security precaution on their devices.
The full study and its conclusions can be found on Kaspersky Lab’s website.
Source: WISH TV