1. Article 6
Are Smartphones Replacing Human
Memory?
The importance of remembering the world we are part of.
by Nancy Colier
Psychology Today, April 15, 2013
This weekend I invited a relative to our home for lunch. Ten minutes after
the time she was to arrive, I was greeted by the familiar chimes that signal
text messages and voice mails awaiting. My guest sounded desperate,
reporting that she had replaced her old smartphone with a new model and
had not yet transferred the information. Despite having been here many
times, she had no idea where we lived. She had exited the train at the
wrong stop, remembering a pre-smartphone address, and was now
wandering the streets waiting for my text. She was in fact quite close to our
apartment, but recognized none of the landmarks that might point her in the
right direction.
I too recently drove to a place that I have visited many times before. As I
had no internal memory of the route, I diligently obeyed what my iPhone
commanded, and did not notice when my master navigator sent me in the
wrong direction. I ended up lost, both internally and externally.
Years ago, Thoreau wrote about the potential effects of our reliance on
clocks as a replacement for noticing where the sun is on the horizon.
Today, most young people have no idea that the time of day is related to
where the sun is sitting in the sky. As far as where north, south, east and
west are, forget about it. We cannot figure out the time of day by the sun --
that may not be a disaster, but we have lost the awareness that a link
between the two even exists. Time is simply a number that appears on our
smartphone's home screen, and has been removed entirely from its
relationship with nature and the universe as a whole.
When you glance around the streets of New York, most people are staring
into a small screen. Few are gazing up at other people, the sky, the
buildings, flowers or anything else. We are not noticing where we are, not
aware of where we exist in relationship with the world. We are becoming a
species that lives inside our isolated pods, disconnected from each other

2. and the physical world, in relationship only with our devices and the
reflection of ourselves that they provide.
Why is it important for us to be able to figure out where we are going
without our phones? We have phones, right? It is not about being able to
get where we are going on the days when we forget our devices, but rather
the meaning of noticing and being awake to our environment and where we
are in the present moment.
For one thing, to notice our environment keeps us safe. Paying attention to
our world protects us from potential dangers. Crossing the street while
texting might keep you from noticing that a cab is speeding towards you. In
addition, when we notice what is around us, we are participating in our life,
in the now as it happens. When we notice our world, new experiences can
occur. We can meet new people, see something that we have never seen,
become curious and learn from what is around us.
Furthermore, being aware of our surroundings and where we are in
relationship with the world reminds us of our inherent interdependence, and
where we fit into this group dance that is life. We notice the other people
with whom we share this planet, with whom we might share a smile, a
conversation or a shared frustration. We notice the less fortunate lying in
doorways, and remember what we have that they do not. We see buildings
that other people's fathers and mothers built with their hands. We take in
the sky and remember that we are just little dots spinning on one planet in
one solar system in one universe among so many others. We observe the
trees upon which allow us to breathe. We are aware of stores where food
that people from America and other countries have harvested. We see
ourselves in relation to all these other life and non-life forms.
If we lose this sense of our interdependence, we will forget altogether that
we need each other and our planet to survive. Soon we will believe that we
need only our smartphone to survive.
We must remember to look up from our screens, not only to avoid getting
hit by oncoming traffic but because of the possibilities that looking up
offers, and to remind ourselves that we are a part of a much larger matrix of
life upon which we all depend.