Beware! Excessive dependence on Smartphones and internet may lead to Digital Amnesia
Extensive dependence on smartphone and internet is making it difficult for people to remember essential information suggests a new survey.
Researchers from the Kaspersky Lab, a cyber-security company, conducted a survey of 6,000 people who were aged 16 or above in six European countries including UK and the results were pretty shocking. It was found that people are totally dependent on their smartphones for remembering the essential data such as the contact number and other important details regarding their closed ones, to the extent that they are unable to recall the information.
The study also revealed that smartphones and internet is increasingly being used by people as an extension of their memory which may lead to ‘Digital Amnesia’.
The Survey results pointed out that at least 70 percent of the volunteers were not able to remember the phone numbers of their children and nearly 90 percent could not recall the contact numbers for their children’s schools.
It was further also found that only 50 percent of the adults could actually remember the phone number of their residences in comparison to what they could remember when they were 10 to 15 years old.
And more than 50 percent of the participants aged up to 25 revealed a shocking fact that they stored almost all their essential data on their smartphones and relied on it completely.
Kathryn Mills of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London says: “One of the reasons consumers might be less worried about remembering information is because they have connected devices they trust.”
Principal Security Researcher at Kaspersky Lab, David Emm said: “Connected devices enrich our lives but they have also given rise to digital amnesia. We need to understand the long-term implications of this for how we remember and how we protect [our] memories.”
Based on the survey researchers have thus warned that people are increasingly forgetting information as they feel it will be there on their smartphone. The survey even revealed that some people are not even able to remember the phone numbers of their spouse, children and their residence as they are totally dependent on their devices. Researchers thus feel that the ‘Google effect’ is affecting the ability of human’s to remember essential data. They further believe that this drastic change is occurring as human brain is getting adapted to internet.
Now, how many readers can actually remember certain crucial information regarding the phone numbers of their residence or spouse or children or for that matter the contact details of their close friends and loved ones. How many of you are actually relying on your smartphones and social networking sites to remember the birth dates and important stuffs like wedding date and much more. Do ponder and try to find out a solution before it becomes too late!
