Is technology making you dumb and dumber-er?
That’s what a recent study would like you to believe: you’re getting dumb by using mobile technology. Some of the study results appear to support the claim with results like:
- 25% of Britons don’t remember their landline number
- Only 33% can recall three immediate family member birthdays
- 55% of men surveyed remembered their wedding anniversary while 90% of the women did. My hunch is this last result has long been an issue well before the emergence of mobile technology.
There’s definitely something to be said for the study, but I don’t believe that "tech is making you dumb". Instead, we’re finding ways to leverage technology and free our minds [sorry to borrow a line, Morpheus] so that we can focus our brains on more complex issues. If I was getting paid to remember my phone number and recall that number a dozen times a day, I’d likely remember it. Fact is: I don’t give my phone number out all that much, so do I really need to spin brain cycles on it? No, I’d rather put it in speed dial so I can exercise my brain in more challenging ways. I think the study shows something valid, but not the fact that we’re getting dumb as a society because of technology. What do you think?
personally, as a young person who’s been addicted to mobile tech as long as I’ve been able to afford it, I don’t think it’s made me any dumber. I know my landline number, and I keep all my contacts in my head and not my phone. Faster to just remember the number than look it up, heh heh.
>>>25% of Britons don’t remember their landline number
Man, I can’t even remember my *won* cellphone number. I have to look it up on the phone itself. This kind of such is MENTAL DETRITUS to me and best handled by the tools I buy to handle it for me — PDA, cellphone, etc.
Besides, in the future there won’t be any damned phone *numbers*. We’ll be contacted via unique individual DNA prints.
(Mock me now, but live til 40 years out and you’ll see!)
Damn typo — “won” = OWN.
See, I can’t even fekkin proofread!
I couldn’t remember birthdays or my anniversary before technology.
At least I get a reminder now. What I find frustrating is looking at a contact in Outlook and racking my brain to figure out who they are.
I think that is called “aging”
“25% of Britons don’t remember their landline number”
Kind of an unfair question. After all, how often do I phone myself?
The PDA is a bit of a life saver for reminding you of anniversaries and birthdays, though I haven’t admitted this fact to my girlfriend.