Digital Amnesia: Reflections on Frontline's "digital_nation"

PBS's Frontline recently aired a program called digital_nation: life on the virtual frontier. The program raises some important issues about the affect of different technologies on the human psyche.

One guest argues that with each leap in communication technology something is lost in the everyday psyche of humans. He cites how Homeric bards could recite thousands of lines of epic poetry. But with the advent of books, humanity lost the ability to memorize large amounts information. One need only to pick up The Odyssey and read.

Of course, that doesn't mean that we don't have to remember facts. A lot of my time in grade school was devoted to memorization. Dates and people and places were part of the curriculum. I suppose my teachers thought lugging around the 27 volume encyclopedia that dominated my bookshelf as a child would hinder my social life and height.

However, things have changed. After, I got my first cellphone I lost the ability to remember phone numbers. I don't even know my parents' or immediate family's numbers. (Don't worry. If I lost my phone I could find them on Facebook.)

My teacher's were wrong though. As an adult, I don't need to remember those dates and people and places. Being connected lets me actually carry an encyclopedia in my pocket. There are few facts that I can't know in a matter of seconds.

The truth is; I have forgotten. It is almost as if technology stores what used to be in my brain.

But what has replaced it? News and information that I pick up on the net? I feel that I am a committed learner but how much is actually staying in my head? Who knows? I'm unsure.

If there ever was a way to access the content stored in my brain. I wonder if I'd even want to see it. I can imagine it like one of those super thick magazines with three or four articles and three-hundred ads.

So what is happening? How does the ability to recall almost any fact in the world almost instantly affect us? How does it change how we learn and teach?