Smartphones are Ruining Your Memory

A recent study out of India suggests that smartphones are killing both your Cognitive Thinking abilities and your Declarative Memory. If this study is correct we may all have something to worry about; providing we can remember to. Though smartphones are supposed to making life easier for us by keeping us connected with everyone, everywhere, at anytime. But this constant connection to the social world and updates about everything around you may actually be throwing your brain into overdrive, affecting brain cells, and overtime stunting your brains growth.

Get the latest Mobile Devices at Mobile Phone Advisor

Why are smartphones doing these horrible things to our minds when they were meant to make things better? Your Declarative Memory is used to remember or recall information that can be consciously recalled such as phone numbers, dates, and birthdays. Many smartphone users these days have a hard time remembering their own number let alone the numbers of other people. Before smartphones became the norm the average person could easily recall up to 10 important phone numbers. With such an easily accessible phone book and calendar we are forgetting how to quickly recall lists, names, and numbers.

This concern about Memory isn’t just for adults, having information so readily available in a digital state can also affect how children develop and learn. Perception, reasoning, and judgment skills can only be learned through physical interaction such as playing with blocks or participating in sports; these skills can’t be learned from playing a game on a smartphone. In addition, if a child is not involved in some sort of physical activity they might not develop the proper motor skills; something else a smartphone can’t teach.

Finally the study also points out that the human mind and human memory are not meant to multitask, something that smartphones almost make us feel like we have to do. The human mind isn’t built for multitasking and with the ease of multitasking on a smartphone can actually increase stress and harm your cognitive thinking abilities. Finally having everything right at your fingertips and not having to think about things as we did before is making slower, harming our memories, and distracting us too much.

Source – Economic Times