Does technology negatively or positively affect your memory? The answer has long been presumed to be the negative option. This is affirmed by the fact that parents often restrict the use of phones, tablets, computers and television by their children in order to help them do better in school. It is also affirmed by the fact that it is important that someone isn’t checking their device while you are saying something important. But what does the science say? Is there a physiological reason for this view of technology? The answer lies, arguably, in the way our brains create and maintain memories.
Karim Nader’s memory research
In Greg Miller’s article “How our brains make memories” in the Science Smithsonian Magazine (2010), neuro-scientist, Karim Nader describes how short term memories are formed by slight chemical changes applied to synapses receiving electrical signals generated from the experience to be remembered. The creation of long term memories on the other hand involve the generation of proteins that effect more extensive physical changes to these synopses. The recall of these memories however poses a threat to the quality of the memory itself; according to Nader the way the memory is recalled affects and can greatly change the way it is stored for future recall.
What does all this mean in the context of modern use of technology? To answer this question lets consider the types of memory formation. If short term memories are easily created through chemical changes then they are considerably quicker and easier to create. In the surplus of stimuli short-term memories are constantly being made. In the course of time, considerable more time, some of these memories are solidified through the formation of proteins and physical changes to the brain synopses. Our short-term memories are mostly being created by technology. This means that the probability of our long-term memories being fed by technology is greater if our use of technology is greater.
Reliable stimuli needed
The problem with our use of technology today is that the experiences and subsequently the memories being formed are artificial. Not only are they engineered and manufactured they can also be altered at will at the source by anyone with access to it. This brings me to the process our brain uses to reinforce our memories. Nader performed experiments which proved that long term memories can be changed if they are recalled using inaccurate stimuli or stimuli inconsistent with the original memory.
This inconsistency likely becomes a permanent part of memory as it is stored again for future recall. So technology or the experiences generated by its use, being volatile and susceptible to inaccuracy, due to its manufactured and artificial nature pose a real threat to our memories, consciousness, and perceptions of ourselves and morality.
So if memories can be indirectly but permanently altered through technology, doesn’t it follow that since our life time of experiences which form memories, forming our belief systems, forming our character, and eventually forming our human nature, can be so susceptible to outside manipulation then we are susceptible to a massive technological brainwash.
Is there an upside?
The upside to this is that we have the power to be intentional about the memories we create by intentionally choosing what we experience and how. Being intentional however is not enough. The fact is that you cant control everything that you see and hear. You have to rely on God’s omnipresent, omnipotence to guide and protect your character. So intentionally viewing everything through a lens of God’s word, His reliable and accurate perspective, is critical. This brings to mind Psalm 119.
ב (Bet)
9 How can a young man keep his way pure?
By guarding it according to your word.
10 I seek you with all my heart;
don’t let me stray from your mitzvot.
11 I treasure your word in my heart,
so that I won’t sin against you.
12 Blessed are you, Adonai!
Teach me your laws.
13 I proclaim with my mouth
all the rulings you have spoken.
14 I rejoice in the way of your instruction
more than in any kind of wealth.
15 I will meditate on your precepts
and keep my eyes on your ways.
16 I will find my delight in your regulations.
I will not forget your word.”
Psalm 119:9-16 Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)
It is important to be intentional about what enters your memory and this according to God’s word (guarding). Let your new memories be based on something that can never and will never change. It is important to be intentional about what memories are reinforced by recalling them in the light of God’s word (treasuring or meditating). Let your long term memories be based on and reinforced in truth. This is the way to achieving memories, character and human nature that is real and free of artificial influence.
For a deeper scientific look at the brain and intentional character formation see my previous blog, link to youtube video.
https://wordpress.com/block-editor/post/developingissues.tech.blog/37
New Technologies and Issues 