Study Suggests Smartphones Are Causing "Digital Amnesia"

We rely on our smartphones to such extent that we started forgetting important things, a new study suggests.

This survey, done on more than 6,000 people aged 16 and older, in six European countries including the UK, says people are relying too much on their smartphones, and are unable to recall important information. They call it ‘digital amnesia’.

Seven out of ten questioned had the ‘digital amnesia’, and could not recall their children’s phone numbers. Nearly nine in ten could not recall the numbers for their children’s schools, The Economic Times writes in a report.

“The results reveal that the ‘Google Effect’ likely extends beyond online facts to include important personal information,” researchers wrote in the report. “Many consumers are happy to forget, or risk forgetting information they can easily find — or find again online.”

Only half of adults could instantly remember their home phone number from when they were 10 to 15 years old, according to the survey by Kaspersky Lab, a cyber-security company.

More than half of those questioned, older than 25, said their smartphone had everything they needed to know.

“One of the reasons consumers might be less worried about remembering information is because they have connected devices they trust,” said Kathryn Mills of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London.

David Emm, the principal security researcher at Kaspersky Lab, said: “Connected devices enrich our lives but they have also given rise to digital amnesia. We need to understand the long-term implications of this for how we remember and how we protect our memories.”