Internet is information. A huge amount of data flows through the Internet, increasing with each passing second. We can access this cyber-ocean of knowledge on the spot and from practically anywhere on the planet, a phenomenon that is already changing the way we solve problems and learn . Benjamin C. Storm, from the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, is convinced that it is also affecting, and in a very profound way, our ability to remember.
” We use the Internet as a kind of crutch, as a support for memory, but each time we do it we depend more on this technology,” says Storm, who has coordinated a study on this issue in which other experts from the same university participate. and the one in Illinois.
In an essay published in the journal Memory , these researchers conclude that the tendency to access the Internet to solve doubts about matters that we think we know or remember details about them can not only negatively affect our ability to keep memories, but also increases each time we do it.
To determine this, two groups of volunteers were asked to answer some questions. To answer, the members of one of them could use an online search engine, while others had to use only their brain. They were then asked to use whatever method they wanted to answer increasingly simple questions. The results showed that those who had used the Internet in the first place were much more likely to use it later and to do so more quickly , that is, they spent less time trying to remember. In fact, 30% of them were unable to answer some simple questions when later asked not to use the internet to answer them.
“The information available is increasing and mobile devices allow us to access it more and more easily, so we become more dependent day by day,” says Storm. However, the researchers point out that it will still be time before it can be confirmed if this phenomenon has any real effect on our memory capacity.
