Nov 04, 2010 Is Technology a Drug?
When you forget your phone at home, how likely are you to go back to get it? Do you feel naked? Do you get anxious? Does it just…not feel right? Well, on my drive to work this morning I realized I had left my phone at home and, let me tell you, it just didn’t. feel. right. I was close to turning around to get it but after a long, hard-fought battle in my head, I decided it just wasn’t worth it to be late. But the fact that I even had to endure a mental battle on this speaks volumes – which brings me to my next post: Is Technology a Drug?
We certainly spend a lot of time with our devices, and some studies have suggested that our dependence on cellphones and the Internet are akin to an addiction. Do you neglect housework to spend more time online? Are you frequently checking your e-mail? Do you often lose sleep because you log in late at night? If you answered “often” or “always,” technology may be taking a toll on you.
More specifically, this dependence may be taking a toll on your memory. Dr. Aboujaoude, director of the Impulse Control Disorders Clinic at Stanford, asks whether the vast storage available in e-mail and on the Internet is preventing many of us from letting go, causing us to retain many old and unnecessary memories at the expense of making new ones. Everything is saved these days, he notes, from the meaningless e-mail sent after a work lunch to the angry online exchange with a spouse.
“If you can’t forget because all this stuff is staring at you, what does that do to your ability to lay down new memories and remember things that you should be remembering?” Dr. Aboujaoude said. “When you have 500 pictures from your vacation in your Flickr account, as opposed to five pictures that are really meaningful, does that change your ability to recall the moments that you really want to recall?” (link).