Saturday, July 4, 2015

Digital Amnesia: a new terror in the era of internet

We frequently discuss the pros and cons of the internet. Most people admit its convenience, but some are worried about its adverse effects on human mind and body.

Recently, the result of a survey Kaspersky Lab conducted was paid attention. This research was to clarify the influence of the internet on our daily life, especially in the way to memorize important things. The whole result can be seen on the website.

Kaspersky: The Rise and Impact of Digital Amnesia

More than 1,000 American people were subjected to this survey. And the result suggests that we rely on the internet and digital devices too much.


Over 90% of the respondents said that the internet was an extension of their brain, and a half of them had trouble to remember some important information without digital aids.

For example, two-thirds could not remember their children's phone numbers, and nearly 90% could not recall the numbers for their children's schools.

The Economic Times: Smartphones and internet may give you 'digital amnesia'

In this report, the difficulty of remembering crucial things due to the frequent use of digital devices was called as "Digital Amnesia." Actually, we can easily get the information through an internet search we forgot before.

On the other hand, we used paper memorandum regarding telephone numbers previously. Not many people remembered all numbers they were concerned, as far as I remember in my childhood.

Is it possible that the IT has weakened our memory? Kaspersky's survey did not answer this question. The fact is that we trust the modern technology to much extent.

Rather, it is notable that this study found many participants naive to the risk of malware. Only less than one-third installed IT security software. Even considering the fact that Kaspersky is internet security software provider so that this result can be biased, we should be aware of the meaning that our personal information is uploaded to the cloud.

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