Most people think that their memory is a constant "reservoir" that is able to hold all memories, but the memory cannot be fixed because it has many changes, and it is not a real copy of the events that we live in.
But memory helps us give meaning to our lives and reinforces our recognition of our identity, which is why we should do everything we can to preserve our memories and ensure they are stored in our minds.
Memory is not a constant "store" of memories
In a report published by the Spanish magazine "Rincon de la Psychicuja", Jennifer Delgado Suarez indicated that when we remember a specific event each time, it is subject to adjustments by mistake or becomes less accurate. And trivial memories are easily forgotten.
Psychologist Elizabeth Loftus discovered that when she told people that cars “collided” instead of saying “collided,” they remembered that the car accident was more powerful than it actually was.
Small details like this affect our memories, but the most frustrating thing is that we change those details and reconstruct reality without realizing it.
For this reason, it is unnatural to wonder how our most common practices such as depicting all of our experiences can affect our memories.
How do memories form?
Attention is the first step in forming a continuous memory, knowing that lack of attention will not enable your mind to store feelings.
The process of storing memories in the brain takes place through the establishment of nervous bonds, and the stronger the experience, the stronger these bonds and the less likely to forget events. Perhaps this explains why we do not easily forget the facts that have a great emotional impact or that we have learned through them.
In addition to the links mentioned, we can remember what happened with some feelings, emotions and words. And if we don't get the basic information to form short-term memories, the information will not be stored in the brain in the long run.
The effect of taking pictures on our memory
Psychologists at Princeton, Austin and Stanford universities have discovered that fine details are forgotten if we take pictures and our brains don't store information.
In a series of experiments, hundreds of participants toured the Stanford Memorial Church, which is one of the most beautiful buildings, and intentionally took notes on the details of the church building, and asked others to take pictures of the church with their smartphones.
A week later, the researchers tested the participants ’memory and asked them about some details of the church. It turned out that those who wandered into the building without a camera answered correctly about seven out of ten questions, while the participants who took pictures of the details not only remembered not only that, but also made more mistakes when answering.
Psychologists explained that "when using mobile devices we distract us from the experience we live in. This distraction means that we will not remember the details that we must give due attention."
And since smartphones are so common in our lives, psychologists fear that these devices will ultimately affect our ability to create lasting and reliable memories.
Mobile phone as "expanded memory"
As for the amazing impact of a mobile phone, what is known as "cognitive loading" or "expanded memory" is added, which involves expanding the memory via outsourcing.
In practice, we are less concerned with the process of remembering because we have an image that we return to whenever we want to remember, according to psychologists.
Another experiment conducted at Columbia, Wisconsin and Harvard universities revealed that when we make sure that we can store information on a device, we remember less information. This effect is often more severe in people who do not like to think much, as confirmed by another study conducted at the University of Waterloo.
As these people turn their smartphones into a kind of cognitive "pillars". Nor do they increase their knowledge because of their dependence on technology.
Although we really do not need to resort to scientific studies to understand the phenomenon of using external knowledge sources, it is possible that you now do not even remember half of the phone numbers of contacts in your phone book, but before the mobile phone arrived, you were struggling to save the largest number of phone numbers, which is What is a clear daily example of the "expanded memory" phenomenon.
The "cognitive reserve" protects us from dementia
what's wrong with that? In this case, the cognitive functions that are not being used deteriorate more quickly because you do not constitute what is known as the "cognitive reserve" that protects us from dementia.
Another group of psychologists at Yale University found evidence that taking pictures to share on social media changes our view of memory.
They found that the participants who took the pictures with the intention of sharing them on the sites, they used to remember the moment from the perspective of an external observer.
Do smartphones make us stupid?
The effect of these devices is enormous because we are separated from what is actually happening. When we rely on a third person perspective (when the person himself lives as an external observer), the emotions are less severe.
Being the main characters of these experiences we live with more real feelings, so the memory will be more solid in the long run.
In some cases, separation from these devices can be positive because it helps us relieve pain, but living our lives as external observers is not exactly the best recipe for making the most of experiences and unifying our memories.
Of course, this does not mean that smartphones make us stupid, but rather we must not forget that we must use technology to expand our capacity and not to reduce it.
Source: Spanish press
Take pictures, photograph mobile phone, smartphones, memory memories
