I cherish the old days when people had to either write down important details or beat their brains to memorize them. When I was a teenager back in highschool I used to have a sheet of paper cut into tiny cards that say something like:
I’m on the verge of killing myself if I don’t get your…
Name: __________ and phone number: _______________
It was a popular way to acquire girls numbers in public places, amusement parks, baseball stadiums, etc — you name it. Of course that was a big joke and this post isn’t about the outcome, so let’s get back on track.
These days when you meet someone and swap contact details you simply pull out your cell or PDA and punch the data right into it. No need for paper and pencil, no hassle, no memory. It’s a perfect way to preserve your neurons for more important things, like watching pr0n and studying illegal chemical formulas. Then the next day when you meet that same person you would repeat the routine all over again since you had forgotten if you’ve met him/her or not.
This article on mnemonics in the NY Times Magazine talks about this phenomenon. People are using their biological memory lesser and lesser each day. Jason Kottke shares that emails are forgotten seconds after they’re read, birthdays and special occasions are stored in iCal, newsreader keeps track of hundreds of URLs, and Google remembers everything else — leaving our brains obsolete.
I personally still have hundreds of phone numbers stored in my head, dozens of passwords and maybe a recipe or two of my most favorite drinks. But the day is coming. With everything being so easily digitized these days, who needs to keep track of anything in their heads anymore? Especially when you can have them uploaded to your secondary brain. It’s like the Matrix, you wake up and boom you know kung-fu. Wouldn’t that be cool?
Damn!
Hi my name is JErm and this is my blog. I'm just a simple guy living a simple life on a simple island.
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My memory is shot to hell. People tell me something and ten seconds its gone. I’m terrible at remembering names, phone numbers or anything else that isn’t expressed in pictures! Do some research on memory techniques and you’ll soon come to realise that you’re either born with it, or not as the case may be.
Anxiety and stress play a huge part in my memory retention. So i’m doomed!
in short–technology has increased levels of stupidity in culture generally. honestly. computers do everything we used to do and understand through repitition on paper or in memory.
How about the day when we don’t remember the details of character of our “other-half”, and jot it down on a pda or something else, and then let that “computer” decide if they are a perfect match for us or not, or if a certain action on a certain day in the past showed that they loved us, or were [heaven/hell forbid] cheating on us. Hmmm.
It is crazy! Everything is moving so quickly ..I personally don’t keep up with my friends that don’t have messenger.. email..or net access…pretty shitty of me huh!
Extremelee » I guess people like you are the reason why they invented PDAs and artificial minds.
twice translated » It’s sad. I used to think that technology would make us all smarter.
Bes » That day has already come dude. I did that to an ex once, got a few hard slaps!
candi » That’s kinda mean but I guess I’m on the same boat here.