We've become highly comfortable in using the information that is just a click away, and are happy to treat the technology like an extension to our own memory. We've outsourced our memories, safe in a knowledge base where information is just a click away. Unconsciously, many of us are suffering from digital amnesia which is also called as a Google Effect.

1. Digital Amnesia: Outsourcing our memory!
Can't remember phone numbers or birthdays? This has become very common among all of us
these days. The birthday reminder feature of the apps like Facebook or Google is saving us from
an embarrassment of not wishing our dear ones on their birthdays and anniversaries. I still
remember my childhood friend’s landline number on which I used to give a missed call daily as a
sign leave for a coaching class. But I don’t remember my mother’s mobile number which has been
changed a year ago. Many of us don't remember phone numbers by heart. We're highly
comfortable in using the information that is just a click away, and are happy to treat the
technology like an extension to our own memory. We've outsourced our memories, safe in a
knowledge base where information is just a click away. Unconsciously, many of us are suffering
from digital amnesia which is also called as a Google Effect.
The term "digital amnesia" was coined by Kaspersky Lab for the results of a survey in 2015 which
says, "The results reveal that the 'Google Effect' likely extends beyond online facts to include
important personal information. Kaspersky Lab surveyed 1000 consumers ranged from age 16 to
55+ in the United States. In most cases, people could not remember important information such
as telephone numbers that should have been familiar, leading to the conclusion that they forgot
the information because of the ease of finding it using devices.
We remember less through knowing information itself than by knowing where the information
can be found. This extends to photographs too. When you visit any new place, and get busy with

2. clicking pics rather observing the place curiously, you end up remembering the incidents as a
stand still frames and not as an event in details which has start, middle and end.
Dr Maria Wimber from Birmingham University says: “Constantly looking at the world through the
lens of our smartphone camera may result in us trusting our smartphones to store our memories
for us. This way, we pay less attention to life itself and become worse at remembering events
from our own lives."
It wasn’t so long ago that a student in search of information had to turn to printed resource like
a reference book, textbook, or academic journal & research paper. Though the information
might’ve been a bit out of date at the time of referring; still, those sources were generally credible
and relatively unbiased. Now-a-days, we’ve got an endless stream of information at our
fingertips: real-time updates from social media, breaking news alerts, mobile app notifications
and random information that anyone from anywhere around the world can access or update.
Our cognitive skills are getting reshaped by our digital behaviors, including how well we assess
the integrity of the information we’re browsing through. It can be easily understood why instant
gratification wins out easily over critical evaluation of sources. Clicking away or swiping left the
moment interest fades result in “less rigorous and automatic” thinking. Forget about big books,
It has become difficult for us to read long articles. Knowingly or Unknowingly, we’ve chosen this
behavior. While many of the researchers and psychologists are debating over – if the technology
is making us shallow and dumb, it seems interesting to keenly observe our own behavior in this
digital era and compare it with our behavior before the Google Age.