In an era of always on, instant searchability, and constant information streams, is our medium of choice, the Internet, making us stupid or are we just developing digital Alzheimer's? Have our brains become a leaky sieve, forgetting information that can easily be searched and retrieved?
Phone numbers, dates, and directions, were the first bits of information to seep out. For this information, GPS and mobile phones shifted our behavior to a digital dependence. Without the need to remember, our brain forgetfully rewires itself. After all, why bother with memorization when you can Google anything within a fraction of a second?
The rewiring of our brains has serious implications. Digital tools attached to the Internet's infinite data pipeline are changing the way we gather information, digest, articulate, and remember information. According to Nicholas Carr in The Shallows, "What we're experiencing is, in a metaphorical sense, a reversal of the early trajectory of civilization: we are evolving from being cultivators of personal knowledge to being hunters and gatherers in the electronic data forest."
Personal knowledge, unlike the electronic data forest, needs only self-reliance. As such, personal knowledge is not as easily manipulated, erased, or temporarily unavailable.
The printed page, for more than 500 years, has been the medium of choice for personal knowledge. Today, from a cognitive perspective, it still seems to be the better choice.
Shoutback: When expanding your personal knowledge, which medium do you reach for?
photo credit: alexix mire
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