People have been decrying the Internet as destroying our ability to remember things (just as the advent of writing down epics was decried by people who said it would ruin our ability to memorize them). But what it's actually doing is fitting into the niche of "I don't remember that, but I know someone who does" — the spouse who remembers people's birthdays, the friend who knows all about Star Wars trivia, the family member who keeps track of what that other side of the family does. We've always "Googled" each other — now we have Google to help us do that, too.
I will note that using my blog as an extended memory in a similar fashion — "What restaurant did we go to when we went there? Check your blog" — has already proven itself worth all the effort that's gone into it. It provides, as the article quotes a research, "the thinking processes of the intimate dyad."
Fascinating.
Has Google Destroyed Your Memory? No. It’s Much Weirder Than That.
The following is excerpted from Clive Thompson’s book Smarter Than You Think: How Technology Is Changing Our Minds for the Better, out now from the Penguin Press. Is the Internet ruining our ability to remember facts? If you’ve ever lunged for your smartphone during a bar argument (“one-hit father of…