Bitcoin Forum

Quick, what’s your aunt’s cellphone number? Or your best friend’s from college?

Better yet, tell us what you did on Monday? You may have a tough time remembering because the Internet is wrecking your memory. That’s according to a new study from Kaspersky Lab, which finds Americans can’t commit data to memory because the answers are just a click away.

The term, according to the lab, is called “Digital Amnesia” — the experience of forgetting information that you trust a digital device to store and remember for you.

“The results reveal that the ‘Google Effect’ likely extends beyond online facts to include important personal information,” researchers wrote in the report. “Many consumers are happy to forget, or risk forgetting information they can easily find — or find again online.”

For instance, people 45 and old are more likely to get answers from the web, then write the fact down or choose to forget it once they’ve used it, the survey found.

Ninety-one percent of those surveyed said they use the Internet as an online extension of their brain. Forty-four percent said their smartphone serves as their memory; everything they need to remember is right there in their pocket.

“In many societies, having access to the Internet feels as stable as having access to electricity or running water,” says Dr. Kathryn Mills, with the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London.

“It would be interesting to explore further whether individuals in places where the Internet is unreliable feel greater need to remember contact details or facts, or have a different perspective on information access.”



http://wtop.com/health/2015/07/study-most-americans-suffer-from-digital-amnesia/

Next step of human evolution. A matter of time before human/machine hybrid breeding program starts.

How did they conduct the test? I'm not yet convinced that the people in the study were bad at remembering thing to begin with.

The real test is if you can remember your public bitcoin address!

I do not think it happens only to the Americans, the citizens of other countries also suffer.

This is quite interesting. Even though I'm not going to question their testing methods, I can confirm this as I've been closely observing people and their speech patterns over the years.
What about people who do not care about such information? I only know 2 cellphone numbers, of which 1 is mine. I've never bothered to learn them (even before I had internet access).

However, I'm very good at remembering information that is only 'a click away'.

I know the first 6 characters:
1Lauda...  :D

I've got a hard question by my teacher, then the question couldn't be solved with my memory and made me can't slept. And now, if I get anything question, just search the answer with google. Search engines have two effects, one is help you to solving problem, and the other is make your intelligence going down.

It depends on how you use it, if you're just googling the answer then yeah all you're doing is memorising the fact and not actually learning anything. What I find however is that if I actually search for a real explanation on how to answer a maths question for example then that explains everything for me and I can work the rest out myself.

The internet has actually managed to help me fill a lot of gaps in my shitty maths teaching I had when I was younger and it's because people now post proper explanations up of how to calculate stuff and so on. It all depends on how you use the internet, people who just go straight for the answer are being lazy.

Yeah technology developments just make people become very dependent on that, then we don't need to go to library or book store again. But if you are accustomed to using internet to just help you get more explanation for your question, I think you can be very dependent on it sooner or later.

Define the difference between being dependent on a library/book store and being dependent on internet (i.e. Google in this case).

Well the majority waste time on cat videos and whatnot. There are a lot of things that I can find on the internet, things that I can't find in books (in my area).
Watching something like this  (https://www.youtube.com/user/minutephysics)is definitely better than watching cats.

I've read about that before. I'm afraid this is quite true, but it's not limited to Americans. Being an older guy (not that old) without a smartphone, who enjoys the freedom of not being connected, not being tied to anything, I feel pity towards the younger generation who seems unable to live more than 5 minutes without looking at their phone.

Not even sure of that. You don't need to actually, as your browser cache and history will remember it for you. And the future is getting worse with sat nav systems and autonomous cars in a few years. The young will have no idea of where they are. I've already seen young people totally unable to read a map.

Me too. They'd be like "Siri get me to this location." I don't know man. The future generations might be just too spoiled on tech gadgets and what Einstein said is happening.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/01/28/251F794A00000578-0-image-a-1_1422408964508.jpg

Why does anybody need to remember a phone number (except emergency contacts) anyway?

Then don't you remember your best friend phone number since you call or text him/her frequently? I think we don't need memorize emergency contacts in our head, just write in the note book, because it be used only in emergency case.

Why would I write something in my notebook, when it is already memorized in my phone? I can't picture a emergency situation where my phone is dead and I carry a notebook with me.
I can't remember his phone number when he's on speed dial.

Well I guess this really depends on how you use it. The majority are probably using it in a wrong way, hence the digital amnesia. They probably look up a question quickly, and as soon as they take a glance at the answer they exit. If they were doing more research on the subject, some knowledge would probably get memorized.

Have you heard about someone lost his phone where it had important notes and contacts there? Then it will be an advantage to write that in note book, and put in safe place.



Its okay then if you don't remember it, I never make any speed dial in my phone.

You will never know when it will come in handy. I always remember a friend's number just in case I'd need their help. Emergency contacts are another thing. A friend's number is optional.

Ha, same here, I don't have any use for smartphone but reading books, people all around going & texting, playing stupid games while walking in Subway - tremendously stupid behavior!

I'd not even need a cell phone if I'd have a sum of money I need, left alone Internet! :D

Have you heard about backup services? All my contacts are stored with Google, pictures with Dropbox (both aren't good with privacy, but that's irrelevant) and Evernote keeps a backup of my notes.
I don't really see how I could lose it, if I correctly use a smartphone. No wonder it is called, smart. The problem is that the phones are starting to become smarter than their users, and I don't know a lot of people who have backups similar to mine (as mentioned). You might be onto something here.

Although, who says that you won't forget where you left that notebook? What's preventing someone from accessing important information?

Yeah, I guess this depends on the individual. I know a few people that know a lot of numbers. I just never bothered trying to remember those, although I know the numbers of my parents. That should be sufficient I assume.

Do you believe your smart phone makes you smarter?

Damn, technologies has developed rapidly and I have no idea about that. I guess thats why people nowadays can't be split up with their "smartphone" everywhere and everytime. I'm using my phone just to calling, texting, chatting, browsing, and gaming  ::)

I did not state this, nor do I think this. Smartphones do not make people smarter, they're supposed to make our lives easier. However, we might be going off topic at this point.

To shorten it, I guess it just simplifies our lives (it has its disadvantages, I know) and enables us to do a lot of things. Instead of bringing a huge map of everything, a camera, a notebook and such, we just have to bring our smartphone and a spare battery.

The majority (at least from what I've seen so far) uses it mainly for Facebook, Instagram, taking selfies like non stop. Not being able to be offline for a while, is a signal that something isn't right with a person. Is it not?

Update:
Exactly. I've actually encountered people, who just can't stay off of their phones for too long, even though I requested (it makes it hard to talk, does it not?).

People are becoming more and more afraid of silence or to hear themselves think. Hence the digital amnesia.

The outer limits - Stream Of Consciousness (S03E05)

I think you are right, when I was having dinner last night with my friends, most of them always looked their phones, and they prefer to reply a chat in their social media accounts than talk with me  :(  So, are you suffer from Digital Amnesia with your 'smart'phone?

They're afraid of being disconnected and there is nothing wrong with not replying when you're busy with something else. I guess many don't understand this. It is usually very boring for me to go with them anywhere.
Well I guess it could be a mild amnesia for me. I guess there isn't really a way to prevent it, however I'm fighting it. As soon as I think about X, and I know that I've looked it up before but I can't remember, I do it again. I look it up again, even though the information isn't needed at that point and I try to remember it.

There is also the "digital tsoutsounopaixia"...

I think the reasons why this happen is that firstly everything is accessible very easily nowadays. People get lazy and they find it much easier to use their smartphones instead of remembering these kind of things. Secondly, it is a fact that our brain slows down when we are indulged in watching tv or using the internet . It is simple. The more you use your brain, the more it's capability to memorize and rationalize and analyze accelerates.

And that is why all my posts here are so critical to the bitcoiners' brain. Free neurons workout...


 ;)

This.

Also, what happened to the good old days, when you had limited time at a terminal - enough to punch in your program, run it and see the results. Any debugging was done later "off-line" on paper or in your head. :)

Yes exactly. Everyone who overuse the technology today. Over working using bright screens and staring at it for a long time. It is the reason why so many people suffer from digital amnesia. Also , people now depend on technology so much that they have developed these kinds of disorders that never existed about five to six decades ago. probably the reason is too much dependence on it.

this is a nice aricle i think iam not suffering a digital amnesia because more than year i still remember my own number my mothers number and still recognize a few numbers of my friend i think its depend on you do you want to memorize that number or not

It is not about just remembering phone numbers... It is about how the mind is rusting away faster, bit by bit....

Oh i see,but you know actually internet has changed my life especially when i've got a something like homework or anything  i could not using my own brain to solved it and than i used google for everything and that habit make me feel lazy to think smart,i want google i want instant just it

The mind is rusting by other things like mercury and aluminium from vaccines, not by internet.

Here we go again. Please don't start with the vaccination controversies. People really need to stop the nonsense related to anti-vaccination and they need to stop going off topic. Not getting a vaccine puts other people at risk besides you. Anyhow we should stick to the topic.

Exactly. I've already stated that there are people who know a lot of numbers, and they are (sometimes much smarter) people who can barely remember two. It isn't just about phone numbers, but rather memorization.
It all comes down to how you search, process and store data in your brain.

Memory Improvement – 5 Herbs to Keep Your Mind Sharp
http://treatmentherbs.com/memory-improvement-keep-mind-sharp/

Hey! That's nice. Is there an app for my iphone..? iHerbs?

You must have seen these people on your travels they are everywhere, buses, trains , in town shopping some are  just stumbling around looking down into faceache twatter and other social sites, at home they are watching  talk shows that talk about people, they are deemed to be laughed at by the audience, then you have media with stupid articles about movie stars ( Oscars are the worst) self appreciation society, this country that country done this, saying it as though it was true... lies to the public 24/7 and yet  99% believe in all this crap.
People need to learn what is really going on, although I am no conspiracy theorist, I know we are lied to on a daily basis.
After over twenty years of not reading/ watching western media rantings and non investigative journalism, especially by some college grad who thinks they knows it all. (Told what to write) I think I have been awake for quite some time now.

Zombies= people.
http://core0.staticworld.net/images/idge/imported/article/ctw/2012/10/10/whats-the-point-of-being-afraid-of-the-zombie-apocalypse-100381427-orig.jpg

I don’t blame anyone these days ,You have to choose what you will focus your attention and memory on. dozens of cell phone numbers, passwords for half a dozen computers and dozens of websites.

Before most people were literate, streets and places were described visually, not  numerically.

"Go down until the road forks, by the Boar's Head Inn, turn right and at the bottom of the hill you'll see the Skinned Cat - that's the place to get your hides tanned."

And there were boars heads and maybe, skinned cats outside these places.

Now fast forward to phone numbers.  The smart phone returns the paradigm to it's natural state - click on the picture of your friend, the thing connects to him or her.   The NUMBER is a carry forward of an intermediary technological necessity, not a priori a necessity.

So the argument may be valid, but can't be proved in the context of phone numbers.

We are less and less using the sound of our voice to communicate with each other. One has to add that variable to the Digital Amnesia equation...

Constantly checking your mobile phone can lead to 'cognitive failures'


Whether sitting on a train or having dinner at a restaurant, many people find it hard to stop fiddling with their mobile phones – firing off a never-ending stream of Facebook, Instagram and Twitter posts.

If this online hyperactivity looks exhausting, it’s no surprise to discover that these high-frequency internet users find it much more difficult to pay attention to what’s going on around them than the rest of us – even when they are not consumed by the web.

New research finds that the most frequent mobile phone and internet users are the most likely to be distracted, for example by being prone to missing important appointments and daydreaming while having a conversation.

In the first study of its kind, an academic from Leicester’s De Montfort University has found that the more times a person uses the internet or their mobile phone, the more likely they are to experience “cognitive failures”.

These include a whole range of blunders, and a general lack of awareness of a person’s surroundings that stretches as far as people forgetting why they have just gone from one part of the house to the other says Dr Lee Hadlington, author of the research.

The study draws the same conclusions among users of mobile phones without internet access as with it – suggesting that mobile phone conversations and surfing the web are similarly associated with distraction.


But whether the most digitally active people are more distracted because their excessive online activity makes them jittery or hyperactive, or whether it is the other way around – that they are more drawn to these activities because they naturally have short “attentional control” – is unclear at this stage, he says.

Dr Hadlington does have a theory, however: that it is a mix of the two. In other words, those people already suffering from short attention spans are drawn to the distractions of modern technology, which makes it even harder for them to pay attention to their surroundings.

His research has been published in the journal Computers in Human Behaviour. He is now working on research to answer this question more comprehensively and to look for ways to solve the problem.

“This is a very underexamined area and a very important one. We are using technology on a daily basis but we don’t understand its effect on us,” Dr Hadlington said.

“We don’t know what’s actually happening to our cognition when we are using this technology and that’s the important thing. What we do know from this research is that there are some statistically significant numbers of people who say they use the internet or their phone a lot and who experience cognitive failures,” he added.


The study asked people a series of questions to determine whether they experienced certain types of “blunders” – defined as factors relating to their ability to focus, physical blunders such as bumping into things, and memory.

The study was conducted among 107 men and 103 women between the ages of 18 and 65, who spent an average of 22.95 hours a week online.


http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/constantly-checking-your-mobile-phone-can-lead-to-cognitive-failures-10458210.html

'We need to get young people off their phones and back into our bars to actually socialise or we're all going to go out of business'







Tinder is frequently blamed for the death of romance and the general decline of Western civilisation, but now something’s been added to the list of things it has apparently ruined you might not have thought of: live music.

In a Facebook post, the owner of Cherry Bar in Melbourne Australia recalled a recent conversation:

“I had an interesting chat last night at Yah Yah's with another Melbourne Promoter. We were discussing the fact that 2015 was a tough year…He posed a theory I had never heard before:

“'You've forgotten the most important factor of all. Tinder has destroyed the live music and pub scene. First, look at Grinder and the gay scene. Grindr came two years before Tinder. Commercial Road Prahran used to be a thriving late night gay hot spot. Now, it's dead as a door nail. It's over. Now we are seeing the same thing with Tinder. This is how young people "pick up" these days. I see them in the office. They're on it all the time. They're not going out to clubs and pubs to pick up anymore. They're just picking up their phones. Tinder is killing off clubs and pubs all over Melbourne and Australia. And when they take their dates out for the first time, they try to impress them with some chic dining experience, rather than a rowdy live music experience. I'm telling you, Tinder has alot to answer for. It's bleak out their for club owners. These are dark and challenging times. We need to get young people off their phones and back into our bars to actually socialise or we're all going to go out of business.’ Mind blown.”


http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/tinder-is-killing-pubs-clubs-and-live-music-venues-promoter-claims-10460225.html

Having access to the Internet feels as stable as having access to electricity or running water, well yes it is true, you can find so many thing on the internet, every single thing you want to know you can find it but you have to know how to luck. Also i use my android phone and i store documents that i might need while i am outside so i don't have to get back home and send some file to someone. I remember many numbers but they are mostly those that i need all the time. This is not just the case with American people, this is globally.

Of course it is global. I kept the title of the original title as is.

This is why smartphones should be called stu*idphones.

Emergency room visits from distracted walking skyrocket


An estimated ten percent of pedestrian injuries that land people in emergency rooms are due to distracted walking, a recent study found. That's thousands of people injured -- sometimes killed.

In San Diego, investigators believe Joshua Burwell may have been trying to take a picture of the sunset when he took a fatal fall some 40 feet off Sunset Cliffs.

"He wasn't watching where he was walking and looking more down at the device," said San Diego Lifeguard Sgt. Bill Bender.

It's a tragic example of a growing problem -- people distracted by their phones or other devices. One mall security camera captured a woman focused on her phone walk straight into a fountain.

Another video shows a man talking on his phone walk right off the train platform.

In a recent study, 78 percent of Americans said distracted walking is a serious issue.

Another study found people using their phone while walking veered off course 61 percent of the time, and overshot their target 13 percent more than when they were not distracted by their device.

While the number of emergency room visits for distracted walking injuries doubled between 2005 and 2010 to more than 1,500, Dr. Claudette Lajam, an orthopedic surgeon, believes the problem is actually much bigger.

"A lot of people don't admit that they do it," said Dr. Lajam. "It's getting worse as we have more and more features on these devices that we carry around with us that can distract us."

Researchers at Ohio State found millennials ages 21 to 25 are the most likely to be injured. And the National Safety Council says nearly 80 percent of the injuries stem from falls, estimating more than half occur at home.

For the first time, the National Safety Council is including distracted walking as a category in its annual report on unintentional deaths and injuries.

While it sounds like common sense, looking up while walking and checking both ways before crossing the streets really goes a long way to keeping you safe.


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/dangers-distracted-walking-research-national-safety-council/

imagine one day without computer, cell phone, or tablet...It would be disaster and armagedon for a lot of people. You don't know numbers of your friends,addresses,not to mention if you should to collect few numbers in your head without calculator..the digital era has it benefits but a lot of disadvantages..in past children played outside the house, were climbing to trees go to parks..and now sitting all day with games on cell phones or hanging up on facebook...

In past millions of people died by diseases.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918_flu_pandemic

every period of history has some advantages and disadvantages..in past less quality of life,no electricity, young people dying, medicine on low level, and now we have digital era where computer,cell phone became necessary in your life

Also, fell from trees and broke bones and heads.

We depends to much on technology.
What if because of some computer or Internet bug all our digital data and information disappear?
We should train ourselves not to depend to much on computers but also exercise our brain and remember things like we used to do when there were no computers and the Internet.

This is basically forgetting partial or all of the information that you depend on, stored on digital devices. As technology advances, newer devices come into use, experience of older ones dwindle away, so we are forever updating, reorganizing, using the latest tech to help us remember our personal info and other info which we use daily for business, work and pleasure.

perfect. i wonder what is the problem i have.. i found the answer .. i suffer from this illness :)

Smart phones, tablets, are very helpful in organizing life activities and in searching useful information. But we must slow on, not to be addict on technology, we must know how to organize life without it

This is old news indeed, but I'm glad someone bumped the thread--I can totally relate to this!!  Things have definitely changed since I was in college with physical textbooks and having to graph things manually, with a ruler and pencil.  Crazy, and thank you OP for posting this.

You are welcome. I'll try to keep this thread up with related news on this subject, instead of creating new ones.

Let's see if I'll be suffering the same disease in the future as I bought my first smartphone (ever) a month ago.

 :)

Smart pohne will make you be more stupid. Well not so but let say to be more depended. So without your smart phone you can't immagine one hour of your life, not to say more..you have everything on your phone, gallery,memories,your agenda,messages,contacts,app what to wear, wel everything...so you can not live without apps

The Smartphone Menace



[...]
One of the educators at the table added that the problem is not limited to the content accessed through the phones, but to the way using these devices is radically distorting the way kids communicate with each other, or fail to. Even if the kids only accessed benign content, and did not use social media to attack each other, they nevertheless spend enormous amounts of time on their smartphones, ignoring everyone around them. Some of them have trouble sustaining an actual conversation for more than a few minutes. All of them are losing the habits of common courtesy that has since forever been how human beings in social situations treat each other.

Listening to this, I thought about the time we had a dinner party at which the youngest guest at the table, a woman of about 24, pulled out her smartphone and began checking her mail. I thought perhaps she was expecting an urgent message; why else would someone drop out of the conversation and turn to her iPhone at the dinner table. But no, that’s exactly what she was doing. She sat in her seat ignoring everyone else at the table for a good 10 minutes, until, it seemed, the conversation topic turned to something that interested her. It was appallingly rude. But that’s how kids are today.



http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/the-smartphone-menace/

yes , you are right whole world are suffering from this disease... authorities must do something..

Sculpture moved after texters kept bumping into it








Walking while texting can be dangerous — a fact that was recently reconfirmed in England.

A 20-foot-high sculpture of two clasped hands that formed an archway over a path on the grounds of the Salisbury Cathedral in Wiltshire had to be relocated because walkers kept bumping into it (despite the 6 feet, 4 inches of clearance beneath the center of it), the BBC reports.

In a Facebook post last week that showed "The Kiss" being moved by crane, artist Sophie Ryder wrote the galvanized steel wire sculpture was moved "because people were walking through texting and said they bumped their heads! Oh well!!"

A cathedral official didn't specify texting as the issue, but said "during the hours of darkness" there were some incidents. The sculpture was installed earlier this month as part of an exhibit on the cathedral lawn, reports the Telegraph; the show runs through July 3.


http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/02/22/sculpture-moved-after-texters-kept-bumping-into/80749014/

It was funny at the beginning but now, the things that "texters" do are just stupid. Are people becoming blind idiots because of smartphones?

Yes.

This is just one of the examples. IIRC there was a place (in China) where they even added a sidewalk for people who are using their smartphones while walking.

Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, obssesion with likes and selfies. This should answer your questions. Seems like a decent way of controlling the masses.

Even though this is the case with majority of the users, it does not necessarily happen. If you use the smartphone for proper reasons, and don't waste time on nonsense then you are fine. The cases of digital amnesia are just going to get worse.

Ahah!

Well is it a bad or a good thing? Hard to tell!
I'd say as long as you're able to be objective upon the data provided it's not important where it is or where it comes from!

Chick-Fil-A To Reward Customers For Putting Away Their Cell Phones…










Leave your mobile phone alone and you get free ice cream.

Chick-fil-A offers, in all of its 150 or so stores, the “Cell Phone Coop,” a box where dining families and friends can leave their phones and gadgets while they wolf down their chicken nuggets and waffle fries.

The coop was the brainchild of Chick-fil-A operator Brad Williams of Suwanee, Georgia, who wanted “a sense of community” and quality time for their customers.

“But as we all know, technology increasingly demands more of our time and be a big distraction, even while we’re eating. This got me thinking about what we could do to reduce this distraction during meals,” he says.

How does the coop work? Everyone at the table should turn their phone to silent and place them inside the box. Guests who successfully complete the challenge of keeping their cell phones untouched in the coop during their meal will receive a Chick-a-fil-A Icedream on the house.

Williams shared that the challenge has totally taken off, with those with an unsuccessful first attempt returning to stores to give it another try.


http://www.techtimes.com/articles/137825/20160302/chick-fil-a-to-reward-customers-who-put-down-their-cell-phones.htm

One's could argue that this digital stupidity will lead to a new kind of natural evolution.

Those people becomming more and more stupid might maybe die before getting laid.
See the numerous deaths because of the dangerous selfies. The accident because of people not looking at the road while texting.
It all makes up a new kind of natural selection IMHO :)

Yep. Darwin Award 101

Man takes a selfie with gun, shoots himself in the face








CONCRETE, Wash. — A 43-year-old man has died after authorities say he accidentally shot himself in the face while taking selfies.

The Skagit Valley Herald reports the man and his girlfriend were photographing themselves with the weapon on Sunday at a residence when he shot himself.

Skagit County Sheriff’s Office Patrol Chief Chad Clark says the woman reported that she and the man had taken photos with the gun several times that day and that the man had loaded and unloaded bullets multiple times.

Clark says a bullet apparently remained in the gun the final time he fired.

The death is being investigated as accidental. The man’s name has not been released.


http://nypost.com/2016/03/03/man-takes-a-selfie-with-gun-shoots-himself-in-the-face/

I don't know if it is "wrecking our brain" however it is extremely distracting it from what is going on around it, and takes your mind off of what is going on.

Not only the States. Same to Europe and Asia.

Im suffering from digital tsoutsounopaiksia. I dont know what to do. Its terrible. lol

Aliens everywhere!

It's obvious that digital devices, such as smartphones, computers etc. makes us more stupid, not clever.
Before digital age, we had to remember and know all important info in our lives and also we spend more time with family, friends, played games together etc.
Now, we don't have much time or desire to spend time with family, don't remember anything and depend completely on our computers or smartphones.
It's scary how much people changed in just 10-15 years.

It is scary how malleable at will we are.

Not necessarily. Essentially what those were intended for is to make our lives easier by helping us manage redundant information (e.g. schedules and such) among other things (reduce the number of tools needed, e.g. calculator, map, alarm clock in 1). This essentially freed time and brain power. How you use this time/energy depends on whether it made you more stupid or clever.

No. This is not true. People have the time, they just don't want to spend it with their families. The reason for which this was common back in the day is because people had not much to do. Now you have the "whole human history" at your fingertips, i.e. the internet. It has so much content that you can spend a lot of lifetimes exploring and would just scratch the surface.

It was a study in America, so your post makes no sense.

NJ Bill Would Ban Texting While Walking, Punishable By $50 Fine…





Here is another reason to take a break from texting or talking on your smartphone while walking in New Jersey: a possible $50 fine.

A bill proposed this week by Assemblywoman Pamela R. Lampitt (D., Camden) would impose a fine of up to $50 and possibly 15 days in jail for pedestrians caught using their cellphones without hands-free devices while walking on public sidewalks and along roadways.

If the bill becomes law, “petextrians” – people who text while walking – would face the same penalties as jaywalkers in New Jersey.

“I see it every single day,” Lampitt said Friday. “Maybe they will think twice about it.”

A report released in 2015 by the Governors Highway Safety Association found an increase in pedestrian fatalities, and cited texting while walking as partly to blame.


http://www.philly.com/philly/news/new_jersey/20160326_Will_cellphone_use_while_walking_be_banned_in_N_J__.html#CykyrBd0CBoR8BqZ.99

I'm doing just fine but perhaps it's because i'm not welded to my phone. I'm sure humans will be fine.

This is very true, I used to have an excellent memory and I have let it decline recently, in ancient greece they used to teach something called the method of loci, it's a very easy, fun and creative method of improving memory and it works quickly.

Remembering long strings of data becomes surprisingly simple.

You can google it if you like, I have a friend who runs workshops using it.

There's definitely some truth to this, but not a lot; the only phone number I remember is my own, everyone else's is stored in my phone which alleviates me from the task of remembering them.  It's not that I forgot, I never learned these numbers to begin with, I didn't need to.  It's no different from writing these numbers in a notebook and referring to this notebook whenever I needed a given number; I don't need to memorize these numbers so it's better that I don't, it'd be wasted mental space otherwise, and wasted time spent in memorization.  To be fair however, this method I mentioned will likely lead to me remembering the numbers anyway, as I'd be punching them in every so often; the phone let's me skip this step as well.  I only remember my own phone number because I inevitably have to give it out; similarly to the point I mentioned about remembering numbers I have to punch in, I remember mine because I often have to give it out.

I don't remember what I did on Monday because there is no need to remember these things.  With or without digital devices, I wouldn't remember such minutiae.  I can tell you what probably happened:

1. I ate some food several times
2. I worked on my projects
3. I went to the bathroom several times
4. I drank some water, and probably a soda, several times
5. I used the Internet at some point in time, probably to watch YouTube

There's really nothing worth remembering as to what specifically happened on this day.  I know some people remember literally everything, but that's not everyone.  What benefit is it to me that I remember what happened on this day?  It's not because my phone stores this data--I don't consciously store any data on my phone about what I do each day--it's because it's not worth remembering.  There are a ton of things I remember about my past, both recent and distant, but just another day in the life is not among those things.  Maybe it's because my life isn't particularly interesting right now; perhaps if I spent the last week traveling, I'd remember my Monday more vividly.

They observe that people forget things, but don't observe whether people have always forgotten things which they don't need to remember.  When they associate it to digital amnesia, they completely miss the idea that people have always stored relevant info, ever since it became easy and permanent to do so.  Had people not done this, they probably would've forgotten what they wanted to remember anyway, or had to spend time and energy memorizing important info.  Where's the digital amnesia here?  There were no digital devices in the 1800's and yet people still stored information and forgot the information they stored--it's the whole reason they write it down, so they wouldn't lose it when they inevitably forget.  Digital amnesia doesn't exist: it does not adequately explain this timeless phenomena, at best it's a trendy term for it.  All that's been changed is the method as to which people record info.


Speak for yourself.  It's all about how you use them.  They're just like any other technology, just a tool.  You were stupid or clever before ever approaching the tool, and the stupid or clever things you do with the tool are an extension of the self; self-degradation is a habitual choice, and so is self-improvement.

I.agree.  It's different from person to person. Digital devices are here to make our life better but you can't allow them to run your life. With them you can be smarter, the key is in the way and the right measure you use them. I would't also sayw that this devices make people more stupid, they just spoil them

Why resharing on social media could be making you more stupid

Having to think about whether to share a message may cause 'cognitive overload' that interferes with remembering what it says – and also causes lasting negative effects









Reposting messages on social media makes people stupid, a new study suggests.

Researchers from Cornell and Beijing universities found that the simple act of “retweeting” interfered with people’s understanding of the contents of the message.

Professor Qi Wang, a human development expert at Cornell in the US, said: “Most people don't post original ideas any more. You just share what you read with your friends.

“But they don't realize that sharing has a downside. It may interfere with other things we do.”

Two groups of Chinese students were shown a series of messages on Weibo, a Twitter-like social media platform in China.

One group was then given the choice whether to repost the message or move on to the next one. The other group were not able to retweet.

The students were then tested about the contents of the messages. The group that had to decide whether to repost or not got almost twice as many wrong answers as the students who simply read the messages. The reposters scored particularly badly for messages they chose to share.

The researchers, who published a paper on their work in the journal Computers in Human Behaviour, said the problem could be caused by “cognitive overload” about the decision whether or not to share the message.

The two groups were also given a test to see how well they understood an article from the New Scientist magazine. The group who had been reposting messages performed less well than the others.

“The sharing leads to cognitive overload, and that interferes with the subsequent task,” Professor Wang said.

“In real life when students are surfing online and exchanging information and right after that they go to take a test, they may perform worse.”

The researchers suggested social media platforms could be redesigned to help people understand the contents of messages rather than get caught up in the decision to share them or not.



http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/social-media-twitter-facebook-weibo-reposting-tweeting-stupid-cornell-beijing-university-a7006591.html

I think so. even I myself suffer.

anyway this statement is used by some people in my country, not only in America