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Im 45, and i can tell you getting a cell phone absolutely destroyed my ability to memorize phone numbers. During the 90s when i was in highschool i has all my f

Im 45, and i can tell you getting a cell phone absolutely destroyed my ability to memorize phone numbers. During the 90s when i was in highschool i has all my friends numbers, parents work numbers, etc... memorized, i only know my parents and wife now. If you don't use a skill, that skill atrophies

sodapopcan 11d ago
...which can come in handy. Sometimes your cellphone battery dies. I still know my parents' numbers from memory (as well as some of my friends' parents' numbers, though that isn't super useful) but I am concerned about it sometimes.
- sakjur 11d ago
  I still dial my parents by number rather than using their contact largely to keep that memory fresh and flexed.
chrononaut 11d ago
> If you don't use a skill, that smo atrophies I don't think the _ability_ to memorize phone numbers is what atrophied here by getting a cell phone. The _need_ did. It's harder to memorize phone numbers today because we lack the practical application of the memory (e.g. only when something fails do we actually try to put that memory to practice). I bet anyone would quickly pick up on memorizing phone numbers if they had to both remember and type in the phone numbers every time they wanted to make a call or text.
- mitxela 11d ago
  The ability atrophied because it was not practiced because there was no need.
  - sodapopcan 11d ago
    Maybe as per usual, I think we all mostly remembered so many numbers thanks to pattern recognition. I'm old enough to have had a rotary phone in the basement growing that I used less than the various other keypad phones in the house. Whenever I was dialing (literally) a newly learned number on the rotary phone, I to think of what it looked like on touchpad first. Although very quickly I'd get to know the rotary pattern as well. Of course, this is likely totally a regular memory device people would use. I've done no reading on this so, so if Socrates was wary of writing, was he also wary of pattern recognition or drawing as memory aids?
    - alchemism 10d ago
      Back in Socrates time, masters of rhetoric used https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci to memorize long texts without reading or writing. Something was definitely lost as something was gained.
  - HPsquared 10d ago
    It's not like we are born with a "phone number library" skill. It's a specific skill that's developed to meet a need. It's carved out of the grey matter, a little table for storing 7- or 9-digit numbers. But the grey matter is still available for other uses.
globular-toast 11d ago
I still remember to this day our house phone number and the numbers of my family, friends and even a payphone down the road, all from 30+ years ago. I don't even know my partner's number, or email address...

sodapopcan 11d ago

...which can come in handy. Sometimes your cellphone battery dies. I still know my parents' numbers from memory (as well as some of my friends' parents' numbers, though that isn't super useful) but I am concerned about it sometimes.

sakjur 11d ago
I still dial my parents by number rather than using their contact largely to keep that memory fresh and flexed.

chrononaut 11d ago

> If you don't use a skill, that smo atrophies I don't think the _ability_ to memorize phone numbers is what atrophied here by getting a cell phone. The _need_ did. It's harder to memorize phone numbers today because we lack the practical application of the memory (e.g. only when something fails do we actually try to put that memory to practice). I bet anyone would quickly pick up on memorizing phone numbers if they had to both remember and type in the phone numbers every time they wanted to make a call or text.

mitxela 11d ago
The ability atrophied because it was not practiced because there was no need.
- sodapopcan 11d ago
  Maybe as per usual, I think we all mostly remembered so many numbers thanks to pattern recognition. I'm old enough to have had a rotary phone in the basement growing that I used less than the various other keypad phones in the house. Whenever I was dialing (literally) a newly learned number on the rotary phone, I to think of what it looked like on touchpad first. Although very quickly I'd get to know the rotary pattern as well. Of course, this is likely totally a regular memory device people would use. I've done no reading on this so, so if Socrates was wary of writing, was he also wary of pattern recognition or drawing as memory aids?
  - alchemism 10d ago
    Back in Socrates time, masters of rhetoric used https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci to memorize long texts without reading or writing. Something was definitely lost as something was gained.
- HPsquared 10d ago
  It's not like we are born with a "phone number library" skill. It's a specific skill that's developed to meet a need. It's carved out of the grey matter, a little table for storing 7- or 9-digit numbers. But the grey matter is still available for other uses.

globular-toast 11d ago

I still remember to this day our house phone number and the numbers of my family, friends and even a payphone down the road, all from 30+ years ago. I don't even know my partner's number, or email address...