What is technology doing to our brains?
By technology I'm referring stuff like the internet and mobile phones and touch interfaces.
There's this concept I picked up from a book - yeah, that's right, a book - and it's called "transactive memory". In my words, the concept is this: we don't store information we know how to find.
Take, for example, a phone book. You don't remember the phone numbers in there because you know where to find your phone book.
Who uses a phone book any more anyways? And who is delivering them to my house? How are they in business? Someone should tell them about Google. And then they should talk to a recycling business.
The book I read was focusing on how this concept, transactive memory, impacts relationships. In my marriage, I store information like computer troubleshooting, video game reviews, car repairs costs, etc. My wife stores information like hair cutting techniques, casserole recipes, fashion trends, etc.
When my daughter was 2 it just-so-happened that it worked best for me to take her to swimming lessons on Fridays. It wasn't necessarily my top choice as I'm not the biggest fan of swimming. Everything that lives in water is faster and slimier than me. Anyways, one of the moms in the class seemed to think I was a mom. She would ask things like "Where do you typically grocery shop around here?", "Little Suzie seems to break out in a rash from the chemicals in this water. Have you noticed that?", "We live far away so I like to get all of my errands out of the way in one trip, ya know?" I'm sorry lady. No I don't. I'm a dad. I pick up heavy things and make kids laugh with fart noises.
I realize the household responsibilities vary from couple to couple, but generally, people in relationships differ in what they do and what they are good at. That's why, the book was saying, some people take breakups so hard. All of the sudden, they can't find half of their information. I'm so used to bouncing ideas off my wife that I sometimes have trouble making tough decisions when I'm away from her.
Wow, how did I get so far off topic? Here's hoping all of that helped build good springboard for my overall point.
When we don't have to remember what you can easily find and everything is easy to find, what are we remembering?
Google practically thinks for you. You don't even have to type to a whole word or spell it correctly and it already has what you were looking for within the top 5 results. Finding it took all of 1 second. Sometimes I feel like I'm actually holding Google up. As if it's saying "Come on, just start typing what you're thinking! I've got this! See, I've already started with the results."
Now, Wikipedia makes all of that work seem laughable (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweden). Even if schools don't let you cite Wiki as a valid reference, you can follow the breadcrumbs in the reference section to get to the original source. I wonder if middle schools assign reports like that anymore?
Ultimate convenience seems to the destination we're headed. Mobile phones, tablets, TVs everywhere, intuitive touch interfaces. My children are already trying to "swipe" the screen on my laptop to scroll down only to be frustrated that it isn't working.
What would happen if a gigantic electromagnetic wave put the entire world into a blackout and wiped every bit of data of the face of the earth? All of the data and records, gone into oblivion. Any of you glass-half-full-ers wanna take a stab?
Are we suffering from cognitive atrophy? Some might say these advances free up our minds up to think about other things. If we are only using 20% to begin with, why did we need to free some up? How did Adam remember all the names of the animals if he didn't write them down?
Will we be able to "think" our Google searches soon? Are there going to be any "experts" in the future if we all have instant access to the same information?
Time will tell, I suppose.
I've had to put a lot of thought into this as well because of the discussions we have in my digital design studies (lots about techy stuff)! We live in the age of information, that's for sure. Older generations look back at "simpler times". They were able to choose what information they wanted by reading and conversing about it. We can't always choose because of the constant "in your face" information on the internet. One could argue with that generation saying that communication is much "simpler" and easier now, but the fact is that it gives us exponential amounts of information between people and places, allowing for much more complexity (and often confusion) in our minds. Enjoyed this post, Kyle :)
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