Imagine a Day Your Phone Is Dead, and You Cannot Recall the Numbers.
Have we surrendered ourselves to digital gadgets?
Phone numbers, passwords, passcodes, etc., all used to be at the tip of our tongues. This was before phones became smart and landlines became something only our grandparents used.
When is the last time you called someone by remembering and dialling the number without going through the contacts list from your mobile?
If your answer is ‘long ago’, do not worry. It is a common phenomenon.
Humans are cognitive misers, and we are continually developing techniques to decrease our mental efforts.
What is Digital Amnesia?
The term digital amnesia was coined by the German neuroscientist Manfred Spitzer, which means overuse of digital technology, resulting in the collapse of cognitive abilities.
My Encounter with Digital Amnesia.
My daughter stays in the Netherlands, and I live in Bangalore, India. She handcrafted a mother-daughter tour of Europe for fifteen days, as travelling is the best way to spend quality time together outside our regular work and home life situation.
Greece, Italy, Netherlands, France, and Germany were the chosen spots to discover the ancient continent of Europe.
Different cultures and history always fascinated me. The weather was just perfect for visiting Europe, and above all, it was a mother-daughter gateway.
I had seen Europe through Karan Johar’s movies, and this was an opportunity to explore these incredible places through my own eyes, along with my millennial daughter.
September 17th, 2015:
We kick-started our European travel by exploring Athens and Santorini in Greece. Acropolis in Athens, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a great architectural wonder. It stood testimony to show the world that philosophers questioned the universe, democracy, and freedom of speech was born.
The Day My Phone Died!
September 20th, 2015:
Our next stop was Paris, France’s fashion capital, and the global Centre for art gastronomy and culture.
It was a perfect Sunday evening, and we decided to dedicate our entire evening to the Eiffel Tower. During dusk, Paris glows in a unique charm, and the French Capital’s most treasured monument could not look better at night, draped in simmering yellow and orange lights brightly shining against the dark sky.
There is nothing dreamier and romantic than proposing to your partner right in front of the Eiffel Tower and in the presence of your family, friends, and the world?
It was a panorama of boys going down their knees, proposing to their girlfriends.
My daughter could see that I was enjoying every moment. To heighten up the occasion, she went to pick up French delicacies from a close-by eatery.
Suddenly there was complete chaos, a swarm of policemen came out from their vans, fully armed with battalion sheets and guns and started announcing that everybody needs to vacate the place and head to their homes. It looked like there was some security threat. I requested if I could wait for my daughter, but they were in no mood to listen to me; within a few seconds, we were all pushed out through different exit gates.
I was sure that my daughter would come out of any of the exit gates, but the place was so packed, and people were running helter-skelter, and it was complete chaos, I was unable to spot her. Everyone looked helpless, filled with fear and despair, and so was I.
I was putting up a brave front, but deep inside, there were butterflies in my stomach. I took shelter near a tree and tried to regain my composure. I reached for my mobile to call my daughter to find out about her safety and tell her where she can track me down.
Oops, “It had crashed!”
My phone was dead. I tried to restart, but my phone was in no mood to start. I went to the nearby cop, explained my precarious situation, and requested if I could make a call to my daughter. He nodded with a smile and lent his phone to me, and there was a sense of relief, which was to be short-lived.
Gosh! My mind went blank. I could not recall my daughter’s mobile number as I have always used speed dialling, I completely froze, and all my hopes came crashing down.
I thought of going back to our Airbnb and call my daughter from there. Once again, I could not recall the Airbnb’s street name or the number or address. I had never felt so helpless in my life.
A small prayer, and suddenly, I saw my daughter coming running towards me, looking equally tense and gripped with fear. I hugged her and started crying profusely. She calmed me down, and we headed back home and rested.
I was a victim of Digital Amnesia.
My daughter and I pledged together not to become slaves to our Digital devices and survive Digital Amnesia.
A Cheatsheet to Survive Digital Amnesia
· Manually type numbers instead of using the contacts list
· Pause for a moment whenever you want to Google for calculations
· Write things down
· Maintain a telephone directory
· Play Brain games to boost our memory like Sudoku and Bingo
We did not allow our spirits to diminish, continued our travel plans discovered Italy, Netherlands, and Germany, and came back with memories that will be last forever.
The human brain sets us aside from other species; Digital dependence erodes human memory as we are trying to outsource our money with the push button.
Let us not hand our memories to our handsets!
