Comments on: Mobile Phones Reducing Long Term Memory http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2007/07/mobile-phones-reducing-long-term-memory.html Sun, 22 Nov 2009 22:11:10 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Ken Houghton http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2007/07/mobile-phones-reducing-long-term-memory.html#comment-212 Ken Houghton Sun, 15 Jul 2007 22:49:00 +0000 http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2007/07/mobile-phones-reducing-long-term-memory/#comment-212 I "phased" on my wife's social security number today, so I'm sympathetic to the idea that being able to have a set of data at your fingertips means that you stop trying to keep that data in or near your short-term memory.<br/><br/>What I'm failing to figure out is what the problem is. My car is smarter than I am (it turns off the lights and tells me when the key is still in the ignition, for instance) and that isn't making me dumber. (Indeed, it's saving me a bunch of time sitting around waiting for AAA.)<br/><br/>Being able to recite a ten-digit number called two or three times per day isn't sharpening brain power; it's rote recitation.<br/><br/>It's as if the brain teaser crossword consisted of "four letter word for pitcher" and "school in North Carolina" and all the standards, without anything that actual forced you to think about anything. I “phased” on my wife’s social security number today, so I’m sympathetic to the idea that being able to have a set of data at your fingertips means that you stop trying to keep that data in or near your short-term memory.

What I’m failing to figure out is what the problem is. My car is smarter than I am (it turns off the lights and tells me when the key is still in the ignition, for instance) and that isn’t making me dumber. (Indeed, it’s saving me a bunch of time sitting around waiting for AAA.)

Being able to recite a ten-digit number called two or three times per day isn’t sharpening brain power; it’s rote recitation.

It’s as if the brain teaser crossword consisted of “four letter word for pitcher” and “school in North Carolina” and all the standards, without anything that actual forced you to think about anything.

]]>