Technology 's Influence Over Our Memories

Holladay, April. "How Does Human Memory Work?" How Does Human Memory Work? USATODAY.com, 15 Apr. 2007. Web. 04 October 2015.

Carr attempts to get all of us who read this to really think about this by stating “Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory” (2). He goes on to say that he doesn’t feel like that his brain is working as well as it used to, and attributes it to constant use of the internet. Understandably, most people use the internet more in this day and age, and it can very easily be assumed that this technology is hurting us in some way. Even Clive Thompson said “We're running out of memory. I don't mean computer memory... No, I'm talking about human memory, stored by the gray matter inside our heads. According to recent research, we're remembering

We may not think about is but when people uses technology they’re changing their brains pathways. In the article 10 Big Ways That Technology Affects Your Brain by Aniya Wells writs “Brains are malleable” and with our technology experiences “we’re actually changing the physical shape of our brains” which can lead “to a decrease in sense of

So many things can be done with electronics. For example, I don’t use a paper planner anymore because I can type into a app what my assignment is, and it will remind me. I do this even when it’s proven to help you remember better when you write stuff down. “A survey even said 30% of adults can’t remember the birthdays of more than 3 immediate family members.”(pg160.) Our gadgets have eliminated the need to remember when grandma’s birthday is because facebook will notify us. This fact uses ethos to make the reader feel sad or upset because it makes us look like we don’t care. One way Foer draws in his younger readers is by by changing his tone from informal to formal. He uses a great amount of emotions in his essay, making to make us laugh, almost like remembering is a joke. But then he comes back with factual evidence to make it serious again.

There is a huge price we pay for assuming that technology is an inanimate vesicle thing. To not recognize the impact such devices have on our brains is a naive thing to do. Based on the research that Nicholas G. Carr presented in his book The Shallows the human brain is becoming more disorganized and less focused at the task at hand wanting mostly immediate gratification. There is a good and bad side to everything and tecnology is not to be taken lightly and can be abused just as easily as anything else and can abuse us in return.

In the article “Does Tech Make Us Stupid? the author Genevieve Roberts presents different views of the effect of technology on our memory. Roberts obtains these views through the results of various studies performed in universities and by quoting a collection of books she has read. Roberts states that the use of technology has caused our memory to deteriorate therfore promoting a dependency on technology to retrieve information.

Nicole Bloudoff (2013) states in her article, “Digital Technology: Help or Hindrance?”, “digital interruptions that occur simultaneously while performing a main job or task are especially able to disrupt the transfer from short-term into long-term memory” (p. 94). These digital messages constantly interrupt us throughout the course of our day with various alerts and notifications, with the intention of reminding us not to forget, but are these interruptions actually interfering with our memory regarding day-to-day information? Bloudoff conducted a study which examines the effects of digital interruptions on long-term memory. The experiment produced concerning results. Bloudoff first set up three separate test groups in computer labs, each consisting of a number of university students. The students are assigned a task to perform on the computers, and in the midst of their progress they were interrupted by digital messages (Bloudoff, 2013, p. 94). An observation of the first experiment showed that “memory accuracy was decreased after the students attended to an interrupting message” (Bloudoff, 2013, p. 96). The second experiment showed that “four interrupting messages were used, and the result was replicated” (Bloudoff, 2013, p. 98). In the third and final experiment, it was “discovered

The two concepts that I resonated with are Memory and the Psychodynamic theory. Starting with the Psychodynamic theory is an approach to psychology that studies the psychological forces underlying human behavior, feelings, and emotions, and how they may relate to early childhood experience. This theory is most closely associated with the work of Sigmund Freud, and with psychoanalysis, a type of psychotherapy that attempts to explore the patient’s unconscious thoughts and emotions so that the person is better able to understand him or herself. The second one is Memory; understanding how memory works will help you improves your memory. Which is an essential key to attaining knowledge. Memory is one of the important cognitive processes. Memory involves remembering and forgetting. I chose the two concepts because throughout the class they stood out to the most. Understanding the conscious, subconscious mind and also memory. I’m interested in understanding the human behavior.

Memories can be formed in many different ways. Often times they are images and sensations that one can associate with a time or event in the past. A certain smell can have the effect if transporting you to a special place that you remember dearly. The creation and retention of memory is both conscious and unconscious, with the end result being a stored piece of information that can be dug up at any given time. More intriguing are the memories an individual can have about a time or place they have never experienced in their lives. In this case, it could be said that these are more the work of preconceptions and assumptions. Through word of mouth someone born in the 1990’s can overtime develop an image of what they believe the 1920’s to have

This body of work explores the materiality of paper in association to memory documented through various ephemeral forms. Represented through documentation of photography in harmony with light, these scenes of crushed and manipulated forms of Japanese papers show landscape like formations alluding to that of the landscape of the mind. Expressed through this exploration of forms, parallels are drawn between the forms of paper and the mind and how paper holds a memory no matter what is done to it. 
Fig. 1 sees a photograph of a densely crushed sheet of Japanese light Kozo paper and like all the images it has been shot with Kodak T-max 400 on the Olympus OM2. This film has a fine grain and high sharpness which, combined with a shallow depth of field and being lit underneath, accentuates the focused ares of creases and folds. 
Fig. 2 shows more of a stretched yet still crumpled form in a mountainous shape. 
The light in Fig 2. seems to be brighter and more evenly distributed which is highlighted even more by the dark black fine grain background. 
Fig. 3 appears to represent a combination of the two other images in an entangled spiral of paper and light, this time with a more subdued foreground and focus being towards the background. This draws the viewers eye in to investigate the image more again using focus ares to create only tone where unfocused adding another aspect of loss. 
Fig. 4 is a hand bound book of approximately 20 cm x 8cm in which 7 images including the 3 others

Forgetfulness will only allow us to be more ignorant and corrupt our minds by stopping us from reaching mindfulness. Today, technology makes it more difficult for one to reach mindfulness. Society has made technology a necessity in everyday life. When we wake up in the morning we grab our phones to check it. When we communicate with our friends and family we use our phones to text and call instead of physically visiting them. Forgetfulness is also when we’re in a room with people we love and care for, and not knowing that they are there. We are so consumed with our phones that technology has became an addiction just like the allegory of the wild horse, we are riding the horse and we have no control over it to get off it. We have to learn to be mindful, and we can start by learning how to get off our phones and connect with the

Although visual art is looked upon differently by all, everyone has a either a favorite piece or at least something that catches their eye. Personally, I don’t have a piece of art that I would label my absolute favorite, but during a Spanish research project found that Salvador Dali’s work really stood out. “The Persistence of Memory” painted in 1931 by Dali, a highly renowned surrealist painter, is among the most interesting works I have ever seen. Even though the painting itself is rather simple in quality at first glance, what Dali’s must have been thinking about while creating this work is strikingly complex. The painting is attractive to me because it deals with the concept of time, something

Memory makes us. It is, to an extent, a collection of unique and personal experiences that we, as individuals, have amassed over our lifetime. It is what connects us to our past and what shapes our present and the future. If we are unable remember the what, when, where, and who of our everyday lives, our level of functioning would be greatly impacted. Memory is defined as or recognized as the “sum or total of what we remember.” Memory provides us the ability to learn and adjust to or from prior experiences. In addition, memory or our ability to remember plays an integral role in the building and sustaining of relationships. Additionally, memory is also a process; it is how we internalize and store our external environment and experiences. It entails the capacity to remember past experiences, and the process of recalling previous experiences, information, impressions, habits and skills to awareness. It is the storage of materials learned and/or retained from our experiences. This fact is demonstrated by the modification, adjustment and/or adaptation of structure or behavior. Furthermore, we as individuals, envision thoughts and ideas of the present through short-term memory, or in our working memory, we warehouse past experiences and learned values in long-term memory, also referred to as episodic or semantic memory. Most importantly, memory is malleable and it is intimately linked to our sense of identity and where we believe we belong in the world.

The purpose of the experiment was to find out if there are any mnemonic consequences of posting personal memories online. During their study, the researchers, (Wang, Lee, & Hou), compared the memory retention of events that were posted on social media versus those events which were not posted. The study consisted of 66 undergraduate students as the participants, who were told to complete a daily diary for a week. Also, at the end of the day, they were told to list all the unique events that had happened and also answer whether or not they had posted the event onto social media. Moreover, they were asked to differentiate the events as either pleasant or unpleasant, and further asked to rate the personal

I live in a world where everywhere I turn I recognize people on their phones or other gadgets. As I start to think about it, I notice how technology has taken over our brains by controlling us. You may not own a phone, but you own a tablet/IPAD. You may not own a tablet/IPAD, but you own an IPOD. You may not own an IPOD, but you own a computer. If you own all of the above, you have consequently lost the battle. If you think about it, what do these all have in common? The Internet. The devices are only valuable if the Internet functions. Many people favor in saying that electronic devices are a negative influence, or that it has made us lazy. If you get rid of the Internet, it’s a whole new different story. The Internet is the key to