Is the Net Replacing Our Memory?

In Nicholas Carr’s book The Shallows, he wrote about how people once had to memorize sometimes as much information as a science textbook, since the information was just passed down from generation to generation. Then people finally started to write down their thoughts or notes, sometimes making them into actual books, so that they didn’t have to memorize everything and could just reference it later. Now we have the Internet, which holds so much information and can serve as memory for us, as some would say. Carr stated that the Net has come to be seen “as a replacement for, rather than just a supplement to personal memory” (180). A writer named Clive Thompson wrote a similar statement, referring to the Net as “an outboard brain that is taking over the role previously played by inner memory” (180). I see their point of view, but see somewhat of a flaw in their statements and disagree to a certain extent.

I as well as many other people rely on the internet for memory. We don’t have to feel stressed about absolutely having to memorize something because if we forget it, we can just “Google it” later on. Similar to this, Thompson said that he basically gave up on memorizing anything because he can “instantly retrieve the information online” (180). Although this is true, I don’t really think that we rely on the internet completely or that it totally replaces our own memory. There are some things that we memorize because we want to or maybe because we think it’s interesting or have a test in the subject. Things though like statistics or equations we don’t have to memorize anymore because they can be easily looked up. For this reason, I think that the Net is more of a supplement to our memory rather than a full replacement, since we can have more memory than ever before combining the internet and our own minds.

Sometimes I think though, what would happen if all of the information on the internet disappeared, and was lost forever? Yes, we would still have textbooks, but what about, for example, daily reminders like our calendar? My calendar on my phone is saved through the internet, and I have many important “notes-to-self” that I’m not sure what would happen if I were to lose. I’d obviously have to deal with it and maybe have to think deep within my mind to remember what I had written, but I have A LOT of notes to myself. I do admit that I rely on the internet for my reminders and such because they are saved through the Net, and that the internet is basically used as my memory in this situation.

As a final note that could stem from this discussion, many would argue that since we rely so much on the internet to remember things for us and store memory, we are not using our brains as much and will end up with a worse memory. This is because we are not exercising memorizing as much. Some would say that they are still using their brains and memories, but for different things other than facts and school-subjects. Many people have different opinions on this topic, but that is not within the realm of this blog post.

-Jill Zalewski