Posted on 08/16/2016 4:05:14 PM PDT by JimSEA
Our increasing reliance on the Internet and the ease of access to the vast resource available online is affecting our thought processes for problem solving, recall and learning. In a new article published in the journal Memory, researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz and University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign have found that 'cognitive offloading', or the tendency to rely on things like the Internet as an aide-mémoire, increases after each use. We might think that memory is something that happens in the head but increasingly it is becoming something that happens with the help of agents outside the head. Benjamin Storm, Sean Stone & Aaron Benjamin conducted experiments to determine our likelihood to reach for a computer or smartphone to answer questions. Participants were first divided into two groups to answer some challenging trivia questions -- one group used just their memory, the other used Google. Participants were then given the option of answering subsequent easier questions by the method of their choice.
Certainly the Internet is more comprehensive, dependable and on the whole faster than the imperfections of human memory, borne out by the more accurate answers from participants in the internet condition during this research. With a world of information a Google search away on a smartphone, the need to remember trivial facts, figures, and numbers is inevitably becoming less necessary to function in everyday life.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
Memory hole
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_hole
Yep, me too. But then as far back as grade school, I remember trying to convince teachers it was more important that I know how to find information (like in the encyclopedia) than have it on the tip of my tongue. They never agreed ;-) But I’d look at the encyclopedia, for example, and just know that I’d never be able to remember a fraction of what was in it, but boy could I ever become an expert in a hurry if I had a few minutes with the right volume ;-)
don’t worry , Obama is about to give the internet away so the global government can run it
hot is on the left cold on the right
Soon the Internet won’t need people.
This is me as well. I have always read a lot, but in the last ten years, have dropped off a cliff because my eyes, even with corrective lens, just cannot do it any more. So I listen to audiobooks, but it isn’t the same.
That said, I do offload memory capacity. When I can’t remember the exact words of a quote, I don’t see any advantage in simply not remembering it at all, or remembering it erroneously, so...I look it up.
But I do make the effort when I do, to retain it internally in my brain for future use. It works for me...mostly.
Filter bubble
A filter bubble is a result of a personalized search in which a website algorithm selectively guesses what information a user would like to see based on information about the user (such as location, past click behavior and search history[1][2][3] and, as a result, users become separated from information that disagrees with their viewpoints, effectively isolating them in their own cultural or ideological bubbles.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filter_bubble
Eli Pariser: Beware online “filter bubbles”
https://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles?language=en
Early in my career working on computer software I concluded that there was no way that I could “know” everything I might need. So my secondary strategy was to “understand” everything necessary, memorize the important central elements, and “know” how to find the rest quickly.
This was in the 1970’s when our mainframe operating system software was maintained on card decks of assembly language by individual developers. In the middle of the night, if there was a system dump to crack, one would locate the office of the person(s) responsible for the module in question and pull down the listings from their shelves to read the source.
Problems which were beyond my analysis would result in locating the “expert” who could shed further light on the situation.
Once software was maintained “online” where it could be searched using computer tools, the strategy changed radically.
So yes, being able to locate general information on the internet changes the way we process data.
Last month I was sitting in the back of a Sunday School class on church history. I was using Wikipedia to verify dates and even pull up relevant images. It made the class, and my notes, much better.
“Who would have believed, thirty years ago, that one day you would carry in your pocket a device through which you could access all human knowledge, and instead, you would use it to store pictures of cats and get into arguments with people you don’t know?”
It definitely does make communication better. I’m able to nail down facts and ideas instead of vaguely referring to a hazy memory.
Well cats are nice and humans combative nature is still there. ;-)
‘Certainly the Internet is more comprehensive, dependable and on the whole faster than the imperfections of human memory’
The internet is the world’s biggest and best library in your pocket.....and little different than the ones in granite buildings: except faster, with a better selection, and just inches away. And you don’t have returns or late fines.
I do research....read the world’s news....learn how to build things.
No different than my once home library that filled a whole room in my home....except better...with tens of thousands more books. MILLIONS of books.
No different. Just hugely BETTER!!!!
A library in your pocket. The biggest; the best!
bookmark
I’m more efficient than that. I use the internet to get into arguments with cats I don’t know.
=^)
CC
Barney Miller had a living reference library Arthur Dietrich back in the 70s.
One of my favorite scenes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ib8StpzyxDE
“”But I do make the effort when I do, to retain it internally in my brain for future use. It works for me...mostly.””
I find that writing things down that I’ve had to look up helps a lot. I use a steno pad and it’s full but I can go back and find words, definitions, names, songs, flowers etc., I’ve had to look up. It really is helpful. I remember things much easier after writing them down. And word association helps a lot also.
LOL, you ever feel like you are sticking your fingers and toes in a dike???????
What they didn't understand is that your brain actually does become full.
I integrated the Net into my memory pathways some time ago.
Skynet is banking on it.
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