‘Digital amnesia’ is real

By Dick Meyer

Scripps Washington Bureau

I may be losing it, but at least I’m not alone, I now know.

I remember my work phone number half the time, maybe less. I get my kids’ cell phone numbers right a little more than that. I don’t know anyone’s street address anymore, and I rarely can recall what I had for lunch or the last book I read.

Yes, being in my mid-50s has something to do with this. Journalists who make careers out of cramming their brains full of information that quickly becomes useless have always joked about getting “newsheimer’s disease.” But it’s not only hacks and middle-agers that are increasingly spaced out. It seems to be all of us.

An interesting and scary study that has just come out from Europe documented a forgetfulness phenomenon it calls “digital amnesia.” Young and old, we’re outsourcing our brainwork to digital devices, and memories are the worse for it.

The study by Kaspersky Labs surveyed 6,000 people 16 and older in the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Benelux. The results show “the majority of these digital consumers are unable to recall critical contact details for those closest to them; and suggest a direct link between data available at the click of a button and a failure to commit that data to memory.”

I am happy to report that I do fairly well compared to the run-of-the-mill European. Across Europe, 53 percent could call their children without looking up their numbers. In the U.K., 45 percent could remember their home phone number from when they were 10, but only 29 could now remember their children’s numbers. In the U.K., 51 percent knew their partner’s phone number, compared with almost 80 percent in Italy, perhaps because their partners were better cooks.

Memory power

Neuroscientists and others have been studying how new technology affects the brain’s memory power for quite awhile. Apparently, new technology can change our old brains quickly.

According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, the average human attention span was 12 seconds in 2000. Not it’s 8.25 seconds. A goldfish has a 9-second attention span – if by some chance you’re still paying attention.

But most of us know by now the panicky feeling being isolated and cut off when we forgot to bring our iPhone – our mobile brain outsourcing device. We’ve all seen people who can’t put their devices away for more than a minute before they get twitchy. It doesn’t matter whether it’s at dinner, a meeting, a party or a walk. It is not a disease of the young, and the worst offenders I know are middle- aged “digital amnesiacs” like me.

Americans believe in the power of our new technologies to make life better. The rationalism, start-up spirit and wholesome unconventionality of Silicon Valley is contagious. If there is a Luddite movement, it is quiet.

But there also is a dizzying amount of research going on about the effects of communications technology on our brains, nervous systems, social abilities, relationships, mental health, physical health and family structure.

A number of writers have written accessible, serious books that draw from all this new research to push back against the digital utopianism we are so susceptible to: Nicholas Carr, Jaron Lanier, Douglas Rushkoff and Sherry Turkle among them.

They’ve persuaded me to be much more mindful about my screen-time and cognitive day. I try to follow a slow media diet – when I can remember, that is.

Dick Meyer is chief Washington correspondent for Scripps Washington Bureau and DecodeDC.