Dear phone, we need to talk

Oh wait, we already do – all the time. In fact, you probably knew I was scheduling this conversation even before I remembered I did. You know when my boss’s birthday is, the type of pasta I ate on my last holiday, my home zip code, my e-mail passwords, the time I go to bed, when my menstrual cramps will sink in and how beautiful the ocean looked when I photographed it in moonlight. When I’m lost, you guide me home. When I’m upset, you feed me distractions. There’s very little I don’t know, because you know it for me. You remember more about my life than I remember myself, and that is a problem. Every relationship demands a degree of dependency. However, the imbalance worries me. I know you’re only doing your job when you’re relentlessly there for me. But giving me answers to everything I forget is making me doubt my memory. Overdependence on devices like you is changing the way I process information. With you around, I am basically outsourcing cognitive functions, including memory, logical reasoning and analytical thought. Research from the University of California has conceptualised this process as ‘cognitive offloading’. By physically transferring information on to cellphones and tablets, we are altering the information processing requirements of a task to reduce cognitive load. In other words, I’m using you to think because I’m lazy to do it myself. Scientific studies have concluded that with every instance of reliance on the Internet as a memory aid, cognitive offloading increases. This means that information rarely passes from my working memory to my long-term memory, as I make no real effort myself. Continuous exercise of memory skills protects us from neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia and amnesia — however thanks to you, I can barely even spell ‘neurodegenerative’. Every photo that I allow you to take, decreases the vividness of my own memories. By cognitively offloading the memory of a place, person or experience onto your image reel, I focus less attention on remembering details thus requiring external cues from a picture to aid visualisation. For example, it’s hard to recall the experience of tasting the fancy food I take pictures of because I’m so busy framing the best picture of it. I contemplate answers for only seconds, before Google bails me out. The basic phrase initiating vulnerable self-disclosure amongst peers — ‘I don’t know’ has been wiped out; for a 15- minute read now makes everyone an expert. An experiment conducted at Yale University highlighted the fading nature of the barrier between internal and external memory. Referring to the line between what we know and what others know. I am confusing what I confidently know from what I seek from you. Participants in the experiment felt that the results they acquired from searching on your network (the Internet), required skills, hence boosting their own self-esteem. Giving myself credit for typing combinations onto your interface, that in reality, does all the work, is an illusion preventing my own cognitive resources from developing.  So listen Phone, it’s time we addressed this problem in our relationship. We need to mutually benefit one another and a little reeling off on dependence isn’t a bad thing. It makes no sense to take a break, as the world has changed circumstances of efficiency. However, you can stop spoon feeding me. I’m going to challenge myself to:1- Not take a picture every time I see something, but instead write about it. Focus on recreating details from memory, strengthening neural connections so the memory stays vivid.2- Think for a period of at least 10 minutes before I jump onto Google.3- Recall directions to places I visit frequently, like the supermarket or university.4- Memorise at least 10 birth dates and phone numbers of people closest to me.You’re probably tempted to inscribe these goals onto your digital to-do list, but this time I’ve got my brain to do that. * The author can be contacted on Instagram @sincerelysanah