Study: Most Americans suffer from ‘Digital Amnesia’

[Wilikon]

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.

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...

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[Wilikon]

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

[Wilikon]

'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

[bojan92]

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.

[Wilikon]

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.

[wxa7115]

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.

This is why smartphones should be called stu*idphones.

[Wilikon]

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.

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/

[bizerinm]

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...

[catch.me.if.you.can]

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

[bizerinm]

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

[trollorist]

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...

Also, fell from trees and broke bones and heads.

[Daniel91]

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.

[bitgolden]

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.

[salinizm]

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/

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

[bizerinm]

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

[The Sceptical Chymist]

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.

[Wilikon]

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.

 

[Ernstew]

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

[Wilikon]

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/

[hugoworld]

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

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