Study: Internet Use Affects Memory

This is a topic quite up my alley. I am so hooked to the Internet all the time now, if I was offline for a significant number of time -- I wouldn't know anything. I think the Internet is wired to my brain.

Researchers at Columbia conducted an experiment to see how search engines and online databases affect how people remember things.

The results are:

1. The subjects were more likely to remember information if they thought they wouldn't find it later.

2. The subjects remembered where to find information more than the actual information itself.

So yeah, instead of remembering that Sanjaya Malakar sang Bathwater on American Idol, we'd rather forget that ever happened and let Rickey.org do all the dirty work of "remembering". We can always search for it later as needed right?

From NY Times:

The experiment explores an aspect of what is known as transactive memory — the notion that we rely on our family, friends and co-workers as well as reference material to store information for us.

“I love watching baseball,” Dr. Sparrow said. “But I know my husband knows baseball facts, so when I want to know something I ask him, and I don’t bother to remember it.”