Buzz
'I can't remember anything' is a common complaint we hear lately. Could it be because we rely too much on smartphones?
Have you ever missed an appointment just because you forgot to set a reminder on your phone, or got lost because the map app didn't work? Before smartphones, we could remember lots of phone numbers or directions, but now, that seems to be fading away.
The 'smartphoneization' of life has been increasing since the mid-2000s but escalated during the pandemic. According to a 2021 memory study by researcher Catherine Loveday, 80% of participants reported worse memory than before the pandemic. Many are distracted by social media, while constant scrolling leaves us exhausted, and notifications affect how humans remember things.
What happens when we outsource part of our memory to external devices? Can depending on smartphones change how memory works? Neuroscientists have differing opinions on this.
Chris Bird, a cognitive scientist at the University of Sussex, says he doesn't have any issues using external devices like sticky notes or phones to store hard-to-remember information like bus tickets. Professor Oliver Hardt from McGill University, however, is more cautious, suggesting that once we stop using memory, it deteriorates, making us rely on devices even more. 'We use them for everything. If we access a website for a recipe, just one click and it sends the ingredient list to the smartphone. It's very convenient, but convenience also comes at a cost,' he says.
According to Hardt, prolonged use of GPS poses the risk of reducing gray matter density in the hippocampus, leading to symptoms such as increased risk of depression and other mental disorders, as well as some forms of cognitive decline. GPS navigation systems don't require users to memorize complex maps; instead, they simply provide directions like 'Turn left at the next traffic light.' Not everyone knows how to read a map, so many people often rely on GPS. However, challenging actions like map reading help us because they engage in the cognitive process and brain structure, affecting general cognitive function.
Although smartphones open up new horizons of knowledge, they can also pull humans out of reality, for example, by 'burying' their heads in screens without enjoying a beautiful day. Without experiences, we recall less and limit our creative abilities, inhibiting new ideas. As memory researcher Wendy Suzuki recently said: 'If you can't remember what you've done, learned, and events in life, we will change.'
Catherine Price, a writer and author of 'How to Break Up with your phone,' shares a similar perspective. 'What we pay attention to will make life richer. Our brains cannot multitask... If you focus on the phone, you won't pay attention to anything else. If you don't pay attention, you won't have any memories to remember.'
Neuroscientist Barbara Sahakian provides evidence. In a 2010 experiment, three different groups had to complete a reading task. One group received a text message just before starting, one group received a text message while reading, and the remaining group did not. Then, there was a comprehensive test. Those who received text messages couldn't remember what they read.
No one measured creativity levels before smartphones, but Price believes smartphone misuse can damage the ability to grasp and deeply understand information. To connect two unrelated things and become creative, we must have 'raw' material in the brain, just like you can't cook without any ingredients. Professor of psychology Larry Rosen agrees: 'Continuous distraction makes it very difficult to decode information in memory.'
According to the ABCD Study currently being conducted on 10,000 American children from infancy to adulthood, one of the most interesting initial results is the link between technology use and thinning of the brain cortex. Children who use technology more frequently will have thinner cortexes, a phenomenon that should happen as they age. It may be associated with degenerative diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, or migraines.
Clearly, the 'god of light' smartphone has come out of the bottle and is present worldwide. We need smartphones for work, study, attending events, payments, booking tickets, making calls, sending emails. If concerned about its impact on memory, what should we do?
Psychology professor Larry Rosen offers some strategies. For example, do something on your phone for 1 minute then set an alarm every 15 minutes. Turn off the sound and put the phone face down. Continue until you get used to focusing for 15 minutes then increase to 20. If you can go up to 60 minutes, that's a success.
For Price, the founder of the Screen/Life Balance organization aimed at helping people control phone usage, she believes phones truly affect memory and concentration. There doesn't need to be scientific evidence for this. If you stay away from the phone more, you'll feel calmer, remember better. Then, you'll answer the question yourself: how does a smartphone impact you?
