Roughly two months ago, a psychological experiment was carried out in Columbia University in New York. The experiments were to see whether people were more likely to remember information that could be easily found by using a computer rather than by themselves. To do this they told half of their subjects the information would be saved in the computer while the other half believed the information would be deleted. The researchers deleted the information where, predictably the first half had more difficulty recalling the information.
But it was the second part of the experiment that surprised researchers. looking at whether computer accessibility affects precisely what we remember, the researchers gave the subjects a question and five computer folders, telling them where the answer was saved in. It turned out that the subjects were better at remembering the folder location than the answer itself.
‘That kind of blew my mind,’ said the main researcher, Betsy Sparrow about the findings, creating a pull quote that every media group, site and blog that reported on the study latched upon.
But what does this even mean for people’s use of the internet and social media? With a world of information literally at our fingertips, it’s meant the need to retain information isn’t as important as once thought, the retaining of information unnecessary. But is that even the case?
The Basics of Memory
Before any opinions about this can take shape, it’s worth knowing exactly how the mind works and retains information. Memory can be broken down into three different types. The first is Sensory memory which is immediate memory which lasts for only 100 to 200 milliseconds. This type of memory acts as a sort of instant echo chamber, triggered by one of the five senses that registers it. Any memories that are retained for the second type which is short term memory which, at best, lasts for roughly 20 seconds.
Short-term memory has trouble retaining information – said to lose almost half of the information retrieved from sensory – unless there is a pattern for remembering the information. For example it’s easier to remember 486-1231-1322 than 48612311322 as it is broken up into sections and easier to process.
The final type is long term memory which is where the successfully retained short-term memories are kept. Those short-term memories that can be successfully rehearsed or repeatedly exposed to will be retained. Retrieving memories is done by two methods: recalling or recognition. Recalling is information reproduced from memory while recognition requires a cue of some sort to activate the memory for example if there was a big game on and it had slipped your mind, seeing a football could be the cue for your brain to recall that memory.
Memory and social media
While learning all of this, the question arises that if our memory already has trouble remembering information in the first place then why is the internet being blamed for shortening our memories and making them less reliable? An answer to that question isn’t obvious as psychologists and scientists are still tackling the question but we can understand the reasoning why.
To oversimplify things a bit, think of your short term memory as an empty glass and the internet and social media as extra water being pored into it. As you pour more and more water into it, the glass begins to overflow and the excess water spills outside the glass. In a sense, social media is this overflowing of information. If you’ve ever tried to take in the rapid influx of information from different social media streams, you’ll know that the majority of them are instantly forgotten about, your attention becoming selective as to what links or messages you check out. Many of these links are gone before we know it and therefore don’t register on your radar
Our memories filter through all this information to see what’s valuable and what isn’t, wiping the latter clean from the mind. Very few people posses a photographic memory so we subconsciously filter through information and decide what’s worthwhile and what isn’t. How much value we place on information and how we engage with it goes a long way in helping you to remember it. There’s a reason why you can name the squad of your favourite sports team or the characters and catchphrases of your favourite tv show but not a work presentation or the exact details of a historical event.
To put it simply, our memory isn’t getting worse, instead the information that it receives on a daily basis greatly exceeds what it could possibly hope to retain, leaving it to overflow and getting rid of any excess information (you still remember the overflowing glass analogy two paragraphs ago, right?).
Quick tips for improving memory
While the internet has allowed us the luxury of instant information, it hasn’t destroyed our capacity to remember information but instead adjusted the balance in our memories between need and usefulness.
The term ‘rewiring the brain’ is one that’s used far too many times but it links to how we change our memory patterns to suit the world we’re in. If there is no reason or purpose for retaining such information for the future, then why remember it? That’s how the human mind retains information and while the rate of information has changed, the methods of remembering haven’t. If you’re having trouble remembering information, here are some quick suggestions for helping you improve your memory:
Repetition:
Repeating the information over and over again is the best way to retain it for future use, although it’s more effective if it’s spread out over a period of time rather than in a cramming session.
Break it down:
Like anything in life, tasks are much easier to complete when its broken down into smaller chunks
Make associations:
If you do this the sometimes this requires a little bit of creativity. Back in school, I was trying to learn Newton’s three laws of motion and was having difficulty remembering until I linked it to the game of football. For example the first law was ‘A body in motion remains so unless it’s acted on by an Resulting External Force.’ Since I had linked it to the idea that a football game progresses as normal until the referee intervenes, the image worked perfectly and made it much easier to remember. It also helped that the acronym for ‘Resultant External Force’ is REF (see what I did there).
The worst the internet has done for memory is probably ruining numerous tv and table quizzes which can be solved through posting the question on Twitter or checking up Google and Wikipedia.
Artcle Source - http://www.simplyzesty.com/social-media/is-social-media-damaging-our-memories/
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