Memory Wipe Out?

I confess that I do not own an I Phone. In fact, I don’t own an I Anything. I know; I know. I am so out of the loop---as obsolete as a four-on-the-floor, stick-shift car. But there we are.

The phone could happen; I think it probably should happen. It just hasn’t. I do have an old, fold-over cell phone for emergency purposes—in case I should drive into a snow bank and need help. It works fine.

 Although I am not at all interested in “selfies,” it might be nice to have one of those phones that does just about everything but empty the dishwasher.

 Still, I am cautious. Recently a much-younger friend told me that she often finds herself trying to remember the name of something and, unable to do so, she immediately reaches for her cell phone.

“It has become a part of me, an extension of myself,” she told me, “I don’t have to remember anything anymore; I just grab my phone. My phone is my memory,” she said, her voice shaded with concern.

I got to thinking about that. What happens to those neural-pathways in the brain that we are supposed to keep free of cobwebs? I’ve already got some of those pathways going flimsy on me even without a cell phone. If we don’t use our memory, insist that it drag information up from its depths, will those pathways become even more narrow and rigid than we might normally expect?  If we don’t use our memory, will we lose it?

Long term—I am thinking of evolution here--will the parts of the human brain that store and retrieve memory shrivel from lack of use? The way the invention of fire eliminated the need for hair on our bodies? Because smart phones haven’t been around all that long, I suspect the impact of these phones on memory function has only begun to be imagined, much less analyzed.

I’m in favor of creating new neural-pathways whenever we can. Breaking up our patterns. Taking a different route to the grocery store, brushing our teeth with our left hand if our right is the usual choice, saying, “yes” to something benign that we have habitually said “no” to--acquiring any new skill.

I am no scientist but I can tell you this: when the day comes that I do buy a smart phone, while I am learning how to use it, I know I will be blasting new neural-pathways through my brain—or at least awakening flabby ones--and I will be grateful.

I will also make every effort not to surrender my memory to that phone.