A new survey says that you can lose your memory from overuse of internet and smartphones. Experts warn that your iOS and Android phones are killing declarative memory and cognitive thinking. According to Kaspersky Lab's survey most of users of high-tech nowadays resort to search engines to look for quick answers instead of thinking about recalling information using our memory.
The survey of conducted with a group of 1,000 participants found that most people have become very dependent on their devices and worried at the thought of losing them. Almost half the people interviewed declared that they use their smartphones as their memory and almost 91 percent confessed that the Internet is a kind of online extension of their brain.
Many adults today hardly remember phone numbers of friends and family members without the aid of their smartphone's contact list. Kaspersky Lab's survey also found that most of the people are not doing enough to protect their information online since only less than a third of the participants have any security precautions measures taken on their devices.
Another study was conducted by AC Nielsen across 46 cities in India, in 2012. The survey revealed that at the time the number of smartphones had already touched 40 million, with around half of the users being under the age of 25. A desire to have instant access to social networks and stay connected has driven the dramatic growth.
Smartphones and other digital gadgets grow into an extended limb. We stay glued to them from morning right until bedtimes, fiddling with apps, texting, browsing, and playing games. KEM Hospital and Seth G S Medical College's Head of the Department of Neurology in India, Dr. Sangeeta Ravat, revealed that a co-relation between mild excessive use of gadgets and the Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder has been the debated at recent medical conferences.
The gadgets are designed to make help us work smarter and make our lives easier. However, experts warn that their continual exposure of information and news updates can send our brains into overdrive, blunting the mind over time by affecting its neurons. There are many things at stake, such as having our declarative memory reduced and a underdeveloped human intelligence.
Experts are most concerned about the impact of the smartphone in children. The mental process of developing intelligence in small children can only be built if their experience something physical, like playing a bat and ball or playing with building blocks. This isn't possible be staring into a screen.
