The Digital Dilemma: How Technology May Be Erasing Our Memories
Earlier this year I was on a tour of a nursing home just north of New York City. It was a beautiful facility, in a beautiful location, and happened to be around the corner from where I grew up in the Bronx. I was in awe of all of the innovative ways the facility helped residents reconnect with their past and activate their memories. Since most of the residents were from the New York City area, a room was designed to look, sound, and smell like Yankee Stadium, complete with the actual seating used in the stadium. Another room filled with miniatures of iconic New York City experiences such as a subway platform, a barber shop, and more. All of it transporting residents back to their days of exploring their busy neighborhoods. I had never experienced anything like this before.
As I walked the facility a chilling thought crept into my mind: What will memory care look like for future generations who have grown up in an increasingly digital world? This visit illuminated a growing concern: As screens increasingly dominate our daily lives, what happens to our memories? What happens to us if our memories are only virtual and less real?
The Rise of Digital Memories and the Loss of Human-ness
It’s hard not to turn on the news or open any paper without seeing more headlines on how innovations in technology are saving us time and making our lives more efficient. While we might have more efficiency, this sense of losing our humanity comes to mind. I can’t help but wonder what happens to us in our tech-saturated society, where we’re increasingly outsourcing our memories to digital devices. Photos are stored in the cloud rather than in physical albums. Important dates are logged in smartphone calendars instead of being committed to memory. Exploring new places only by using our devices. Even our daily experiences are often viewed through the lens of a camera or documented in social media posts rather than being fully lived in the moment. We’ve seen our friends post those 50 photos on Instagram of their concert experience. Are they even enjoying the concert if they have to post the entire time just to show their followers that they were there? I’ve never understood why people do this.
Are we losing the ability to form and retain organic, multisensory memories? And if so, what are the long-term implications for our cognitive health and our very humanity?
The Science of Memory Formation and the Role of Memories in Aging
To understand the potential impact of technology on memory, it’s essential to grasp how memories are formed and stored in the brain. Dr. Eric Kandel, a Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist, explains that memory formation involves the strengthening of synaptic connections between neurons. This process, known as long-term potentiation, is influenced by various factors, including attention, emotion, and sensory input.
The richness of our aesthetic experiences plays a significant role in how strongly memories are encoded. The more senses are involved in an experience, the more neural pathways are activated, creating a more robust and lasting memory. This is what makes us human. This is why the nursing center’s multisensory approach is so effective in triggering recollections in their residents. It’s why it moved me so deeply and awakened this sense of curiosity of what if. What if we knew how we could better protect our brains and longevity, just by having in-person, real-life experiences?
Memories are more than simple recollections; they form the essence of our identity and shape our lives. Engaging with the physical world, experiencing diverse sensory inputs, and forming social connections are vital for memory consolidation and cognitive resilience. However, the overuse of technology threatens to undermine these critical processes.
Jonathan Haidt’s latest best-seller, “The Anxious Generation,” delves into the mental health crises among today’s youth, linking excessive screen time to rising anxiety, depression, and cognitive decline. He emphasizes that today’s children are growing up in an environment where digital interactions often replace physical ones, leading to increased rates of mental health issues and cognitive impairment.
The Threat of Digital Dementia
The term “digital dementia” was coined by neuroscientist Manfred Spitzer in 2012 in his book, “Digital Dementia: What We and Our Children Are Doing to Our Minds”, to describe the breakdown of cognitive abilities due to the overuse of digital technology. While not yet a clinically recognized condition, there’s growing concern among experts that our increasing reliance on digital devices may be altering our brain structure and function.
More research is needed to fully understand the long-term impacts of excessive technology use on cognitive function, however, many neuroscientists and mental health professionals are raising alarms about the potential risks, especially for developing brains. The concerns range from attention deficits and memory problems to more severe cognitive impairments in later life. We truly don’t know yet the long-term outcomes but there is concern across the board.
The Importance of Lived Experiences
As I always say, we are sensorial beings seeking sensorial experiences in everything we do. So, how do our diminishing sensorial experiences impact us as we age?
Future generations may find themselves with a wealth of digital memories but are experience poor. A photo album stored in the cloud might contain thousands of images, but will it evoke the same emotional response as the photo you printed out and put in a frame on your nightstand or the scent of a grandmother’s favorite fragrance or your childhood treehouse or toy?
Striking a Balance
We can’t abandon technology as our daily dependence on it is only getting more ingrained into every aspect of our daily lives. Rather, we need to find a balance between digital convenience and authentic experiences. Here are some strategies to help preserve our cognitive health in the digital age:
1. Use Your Hands: As humans, we need to use our hands and our bodies. When we use our full bodies for experiences, it helps us hold on to those moments in our brains.
2. Mindfulness: Be present at the moment rather than constantly documenting experiences through a screen.
3. Seek experiences every day: Make a conscious effort to create rich, multisensory experiences that are more likely to form lasting memories.
4. Limit screen time: Set boundaries on device usage, especially before bedtime, to allow the brain time to process and consolidate memories.
5. Memory games: Engage in activities that challenge your recall, such as learning a new language or playing memory games.
Preservation:
Visiting the nursing home was that poignant reminder of how impactful our memories are as we age. Sing, dance, play, heck climb a tree! Use your hands and activate your senses to the beauty of the world around you. Take out your earbuds as you go for a walk.
By consciously creating and preserving rich, lived experiences, we can ensure that we all will have a wealth of authentic memories to draw upon as we age, and age well.
The choice is ours: Will we allow technology to erase our memories, or will we harness its power while preserving the irreplaceable value of genuine human experiences? The health of our aging brains may depend on the answer.
