Gadgets Have Taken Over For Our Brains

skotte writes "According to a Trinity College 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. In effect, the study argues, these devices have replaced our long-term memory capabilities. 'As many as a third of those surveyed under the age of 30 were unable to recall their home telephone number without resorting to their mobile phones or to notes. When it came to remembering important dates such as the birthdays of close family relatives, 87 per cent of those over the age of 50 could remember the details, compared with 40 per cent of those under the age of 30.'"

Comments

Re:Knowledge in memory vs in a book

[Joebert]

Do you want your airplane pilot looking up what the trim settings, or throttle settings are on the plane when he is landing?

No, I want the plane to be built well enough that they'd never have to know any of that.
I don't fly, but if I had no other choice I would rather trust in an airplane programmed with decades of information over a single persons memory any day.

Re:We choose what to memorize...

[ozamosi]

But it's just WRONG! When FSM/God created the long term memory, it was designed to house your phone number, not your pin code! If it's not housing your phone number, it is no longer a long term memory. When telephones were being invented, it was just the realization of the prophecy! ...right?

Re:I was going to comment on that article...

[eneville]

This is worse than goatse.cx. Remember, you're on THE INTERNET, so anything goes. Be prepared to have nightmarish recollection of what you will see if you click on this. And remember, you were warned:

http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/8765/cortacabea2i q.jpg that is a really really really stupid thing to do