​Is Technology Making Us Smarter or Dumber?

In fact, you can hardly fire up the internet without coming across a headline addressing this very issue:

-- Is the Internet Killing Our Brains?

-- Are Smart Phones Making Us Stupid?

-- Is Facebook on a Secret Crusade to Harvest Our Souls for Profit?

Okay, so maybe we made-up that last one … but you get the idea.  

Well, believe it or not, this question isn’t new.

Throughout history, people have always worried that our brains might be incapable of handling the flood of information made possible by the latest technology.

The respected Swiss scientist Conrad Gessner once voiced his concern that the modern world was “overwhelming” people with data, and he believed this over-abundance was both “confusing and harmful” to the brain.

Keep in mind, though, that his modern world was the mid-16th century … and the abundance of data he spoke of was made possible by the printing press.

But it goes back much further than that …

In the 5th century BC, the famous Greek philosopher Socrates reportedly agonized over the corrosive effect that writing would have on the minds of children …

In fact, he famously warned against writing, because he believed it only served to “create forgetfulness in our souls” by gradually turning our memories into mush.

Needless to say, the debate of man versus technology is as old as time.

But is there any validity to this argument? Is technology really making us dumber?

[AN ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLE]

Let’s examine how digital technology is impacting our memory with an illustrative example.

To start, consider this question …

What was your childhood telephone number?

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Chances are, you had no problem coming up with that answer … despite the fact that you probably haven’t dialed those digits in decades.

Now try this one:

What is your best friend’s telephone number?

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This time, I’m guessing you have no clue … even though you’ve likely called and/or texted that person dozens of times over the past week.

Surely this is a sign that technology is killing our memory -- right?

Well, not really.

If technology was killing our memory, then how could you remember your childhood phone number? Shouldn’t that have faded away years ago from the corrosive effects of technology?

Stated simply, technology does NOT appear to be harming our memory in any way, shape or form.

Instead, it’s merely re-defining what type of memory we favor.

[31 FLAVORS]

Memory comes in several distinct forms.

For instance, procedural memory is our ability to remember how to perform actions -- like swimming or riding a bike.

Working memory is our ability to hold information in conscious awareness for short periods of time -- like when we mentally repeat a password or a locker combination.

And when it comes to school or formal education, we generally focus on declarative memory …

Declarative memory is our ability to remember names, dates, facts, and so on -- the things that students, rightly or wrongly, are typically tested on.

Now, there are two different ways to access declarative memories: recognition and recall.

To demonstrate the difference, let’s consider two questions …

First: Which of the following characters is Frankenstein’s Monster?

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This question is an example of recognition.

In this instance, all relevant information is presented and stored externally.

To answer correctly, you simply have to glance at each image and decide which one matches the question.

There’s no need for you to call on any internal resources.

And now, the second question: What is the capital of Germany?

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This question is an example of recall.

In this instance -- assuming you don’t have an atlas by your side -- all relevant information is stored internally.

To answer correctly, relevant ideas and facts must already exist within your brain.

[BRINGING IT TOGETHER]

Now, to understand how technology is impacting our memory, consider this:

If, for whatever reason, you suddenly needed to know your best friend’s phone number, could you quickly and easily look it up on your phone?

Of course you could … which means that technology is not destroying our ability to retain information -- it’s simply making it incredibly easy to store and access information externally.

In other words, technology favors recognition over recall … and, when we utilize technology, so do we.

However, it’s important to understand that when people rely on external memory storage,

they don’t lose their power to use internal recall.

Case in point: even though you may not be able to recall your best friend’s phone number by rote, you can certainly recall where it is stored, and how to access it.

It turns out that when people know they can access facts externally, they typically display weak recall for those facts, but strong recall for the location of those facts.

On the other hand, when people know they cannot access facts externally, they typically display strong recall of the facts themselves. 

In both instances, something has been memorized … it’s simply that the nature of the thing has changed depending on the context.

[SO NOW THEN]

In the end, technology is not making us dumber, and it’s not killing our memory ...

It’s simply changing the form of memory we most often rely on.