Digital Amnesia In Practice (mobile phone use)

       From the unlimited access to information on the internet, to the smartphones that we carry all of our information on, technology is changing the way our brains store information. With infinite information only a few clicks away, it tends to be very natural for us to rely on digital devices to store the info we otherwise would have to remember. This is called 'the google effect', or 'digital amnesia'.

       Digital Amnesia In Practice

       The Kaspersky Lab shows us that most phone customers in the United Kingdom can't remember important phone numbers from memory including; those of their children, their children's schools, their place of work, their partner. However, half of these interviewed people could easily recall their home phone number from when they were younger. This directly shows how nowadays people don't bother to store certain crucial information, simply because they know it is available to them through their everyday mobile device.
       Researchers say that as we store more information on mobile phones, our brain is actually encouraged to forget the information it formerly stored. This is due to our limited brain capacity.

       Modern Day Reliance

       Kaspersky's lab shows that over half of the younger people surveyed, admitted that their phone holds pretty much all of what they need to know. Clearly, this shows how crucial smartphones and that other technology has become in regards to the information we rely on day to day. This study shows that the loss of a person's smartphone can not only be inconvenient, but devastating. Almost half (44%) of women surveyed, said they would be overwhelmed and saddened if they lost their smartphone due to the fact that they believed they would lose memories they could never get back. Also, a quarter of the women surveyed (and 38% of the younger people surveyed) said they would be 'completely frantic' since their smartphone is their primary source of data, images and contact information. Years ago these images would be tangible, and the contact information would be mostly stored in your brain and written down somewhere as a backup, not as a primary source of the info.

References:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/digital-amnesia-kaspersky-1.3262600 , https://blog.kaspersky.com/digital-amnesia-survival/9194

Connectivity & Reliance

Through years of development in human progress and technology our understanding of the world and the way we communicate has never been any better. The more and more connections we make today, the more and more opportunities we will have tomorrow. The underlying importance of connectivity is that because of it, we evolve at a faster rate discovering new things and assessing new challenges only for the better. Our reliance on technology expands as we develop technologies itself shifting towards more complex things. Our physiological needs shift because of technology. Our initial needs become fulfilled and satisfied as we no longer need to depend on the essentials of life such as water, food, and health. We don’t live in a day in age anymore where not too long ago our main concern was about cooking food and being limited to how little we can do in a day. Or the fact that we have to do things with time and effort such as going to the library, looking for a book, checking it out, and finally reading it. In relation to the google effect, if you go by it, you are more than likely to be utilizing the reliance of google and what it has to offer. Always trusting the internet to find new information may not necessarily be a bad thing as it encourages us to learn, connect and develop. There are those who say they would look something up later on google and might and up forgetting but to those who actually do learn something from it.

“Through the reliance of the Internet we can fulfill all our physiological needs, therefore our reliance on the internet is making us much more aware and smarter of our individual self and what’s around us”

According to research findings from the Digital Amnesia Report (1). “The results reveal that the “Google Effect” likely extends beyond online facts to include important personal information.” Through these findings an increasing amount of people ranging from young consumers to adults had connected devices as their primary source of knowledge as well as default space for storage information. The study showed that the 16-44 year olds surveyed categorized two main broad categories which were recalling knowledge and insight, and the recall of personal information. A trust and reliance on these two categories can benefit an individual with the ability to link connections, understand and learn more about themselves. Retrieved from Digital Amnesia Report (Page 4) Kaspersky Lab.

One thing we take for granted and hardly realize is our reliance on technology. Every day we begin to trust technology more and more. We realize the benefits of such things and utilize it to the best of our ability. As our reliance grows on technology so does the development of human progress. We begin to work more efficiently, smarter, and with ease. One could argue that there are so many disadvantages to the reliance of technology but what underlies is the fact is that it’s the little things such as the google search engine that change our lives inch by inch.

References:

https://kasperskycontenthub.com/usa/files/2015/06/Digital-Amnesia-Report.pdf