Digital Amnesia - and why understanding it matters

Isn't it strange that we can't really remember? Isn't there something a bit weird about the fact that we can't really remember what life was like without smartphones? How did we make plans, connections or stay in touch? How did we fill the empty-time moments in our lives? We have a vague recollection but it's not crisp or clear, it's not full 20/20 hindsight by any stretch.

And what takes strange / weird / crazy to the next level is that it really wasn't that long ago... How long do you think it was? How long ago was it when we lived our lives without smartphones?

(Take a moment to think about it if you'd like.)

The answer is about fifteen years. The iPhone launched in 2007 but took a few years to get going and by 2010 we had Twitter, Skype, Foursquare, Angry Birds, Evernote, Shazam, and tons of utilities & games were available via the stores resembling something similar to what we affectionately refer to as a smart phone today. The front facing camera came in with the iPhone 4 and its "usefulness" was cemented when Instagram launched on ios in October 2010.

But my point is that's really not that long ago - it's 15 years at best!!

If someone had said to me 15 years ago you won't really remember what you were doing or how you went about your business and daily lives in 15 years time I would have thought they'd been on something and may well have asked them where they got it. Just to be clear, I'm not suggesting anything sinister here or conspiracy-theory based but I do think it is an important conundrum to ponder as we continue our current and developing relationship with tech.

Back to the naughties.... So that was the smart phone but there were other milestones before we got to that point:

2000s: Text messaging (SMS) + Blackberry Messenger → instant, casual communication becomes standard.

2004: Facebook launches → social networking goes mainstream.

2005: YouTube → video creation and consumption explode.

2006: Twitter → short-form, always-on sharing.

2007: Mobile broadband (3G) adoption spreads → phones can finally handle rich media

And the reality based on the conversations I've had on this subject nobody is particularly clear on how we got by during those times. Working back we can probably deduce that we only had facebook on our computers back then or "Oh, yeah, I remember the Blackberry!" but the truth is, if we are honest with ourselves, it is all more opaque than we thought it would be.

Why!?

Why is it that we don't really clearly remember what we did with our time, how we filled spare moments in our days, what we did with ourselves in a queue at the bank or sitting on a train? Do we remember how nights out were different without these devices or whether a concert was better if we weren't surrounded by folk trying to capture the moment. I suspect that the concert was more special and the night out probably was too.

This scrutiny shouldn't be applied vindictively - far from it! We should at the very least appreciate what the advent of these technological advances have brought to our lives. But as a bare minimum we should attempt to understand what is at the core of our collective and widespread shoulder shrugged approach to understand how things really were before the always on, social-first, endless-scroll @rselholes consumed us without so much as us saying please & thank you.

One plausible reason is the size and force of the wave that hit us back in 2010. It wasn't just angrier angry birds, it was those little shits plus facebook, and then Instagram, & our banking apps, + email (c. 2007 for widespread adoption) + spotify, plus WhatsApp plus plus, plus, plus. (and I didn't even mention shazam!). 

That wave hit us so damn hard that we had absolutely no idea where or what to turn to. All we knew was that we were surrounded by bright shiny objects pretending to be free and available to us a thumb scroll away. It's no wonder we can't really remember how we organised a friend's birthday party at (INSERT CHEEZY NIGHT CLUB VENUE HERE) or what it felt like to have a genuine random encounter with a stranger.

Another theory is that the nature of this tech with its photos, posts and scroll have been so pervasive that our brains now rely on digital traces instead of internal recall.Pre-smartphone memories lack those cues, so they feel more distant and less vivid. Our brains have been moulded - that's nuts! Sad and absolutely nuts but quite possibly absolutely true too.

Or maybe things have just got so goddam fast that our brains just can't deal with it. Growing up, things were chilled. We knew where we were at... Ok, computer and all that but vcr videos, walkmen, tape players (juke-boxes included), then floppy disks to smaller (not so floppy) disks, then DVDs and CD-ROMs (sorry mini-disc; you didn't make the cut) - back then we kinda knew where we were i think. But since 2010 I'm not sure we know where we are, where we're going or where we've been and that's confusing for us. 

Whether it is one or a combination of these reasons or just the fact that our nostalgic memory is largely selective we should consider these hypotheses with the attention they deserve but also with one eye on the future of what is to come. Whatever the reasons are, they are to a large extent irrelevant. It happened - no regrets and let's not dwell on it eh!?

We should though definitely consider what effects new advances, including AI and all it brings with it will have on us. If we can't remember 15 years ago, what other cognitive shifts will AI create that we won't even notice? 

What will, in a mere 15 years, these times mean to the generations who didn't ever know any different that are fortunate enough to follow in our footsteps (even if they never got the chance to experience (INSERT CHEEZY NIGHT CLUB VENUE HERE)?)

The answer(s), of course, lie ahead of us and anyone who claims certainty is fooling themselves. Lacking clarity on the answer(s) does not give us permission to collectively shrug our shoulders once again because this time we have the benefit of hindsight and context. 

This time we can see both sides; life-before & life-after smart tech permeated our lives. As custodians of this knowledge we need to apply it with as much subtlety and humanity as we can to preserve that important bridge or it too will be lost and washed away forever. 

ISW_