Smart phones apparently have a redeeming quality. I’m not sure I believe this, but a new study says that smartphones can boost your memory. Think of a phone as an external hard drive for your brain. That’s the idea here. They think that by letting your phone remember a bunch of important information, it frees your brain up to remember other stuff. They developed a memory game for people to play and it somehow showed that memories improved 18 to 27 percent.
All I know is that I can’t remember my own wife’s phone number 7 years after she got it. It’s on my phone. I’ve tried to commit it to memory, but it never sticks. Mostly because my brain knows it doesn’t have to because the number is on the phone.
I know this, if they make memory better, it doesn’t translate into people getting smarter. All I have to do is watch people in other cars during my commute to work every morning. Try this some time; after waiting at a red light, as you pass oncoming traffic, count how many people are texting or talking on their phone and not paying attention as they drive through the intersection. I bet you average 3 or more.