Digital amnesia, the experience of forgetting information that you trust a digital device to store and remember for you, is a concrete phenomenon. Almost all (91%) of those surveyed in a recent poll agreed that they use the Internet as an online extension of their brain.
Research commissioned by Kaspersky Lab suggests a direct link between data (like a phone number) that’s readily available at the swipe of a finger and a failure to commit that data to memory. The study has found that the ‘Google Effect,’ the impact on our memory of being able to find information online has extended to include important personal information and mobile devices. Almost half of the respondents (44%) said that their smartphone holds almost everything they need to know or recall.
The findings also suggest that losing personal data—like pictures of one’s children, vacation videos or someone’s phone number—causes immense distress, particularly among women and people under 35. More than half of women (51%) and almost the same number of 25 to 34-year-olds (49%) would be overwhelmed by sadness since they have memories stored on their devices that they believe they might never get back. One in four women (27%) and 35% of younger respondents (16 to 24-year-olds) would panic: their devices are the only place they store images and contact information.
Yet, Americans are failing to adequately protect those devices with readily available security products—28% do not protect any of their devices with additional security. In the study, 28 percent admitted that they do not protect any of their devices with additional security. In addition, just one in three installs extra IT security on their smartphone (30.5%), one in five on a tablet (20.5%).
“Connected devices enrich our lives every day, but they have also caused the prevalence of Digital Amnesia in our country,” said Chris Doggett, managing director of Kaspersky Lab North America. “As consumers, it is important for all of us to understand the long term implications of this effect, and why it reinforces the need for us to diligently protect our valuable information and precious memories. By conducting this study, Kaspersky Lab is able to shed further light on how consumers are using and depending on their devices, and armed with this information, we will continue our mission to raise public awareness about the importance of using technology to protect our digital lives.”
Experts point out that the act of forgetting is not inherently a bad thing.
“We are beautifully adaptive creatures and we don’t remember everything because it is not to our advantage to do so. Forgetting becomes unhelpful when it involves losing information that we need to remember,” said Kathryn Mills, UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience in London. “One of the reasons consumers might be less worried about remembering information is because they have connected devices that they trust. In many societies, having access to the Internet feels as stable as having access to electricity or running water.”