I started carrying a PDA everywhere in 1998. Part of the reason was that they had arrived as a technology, with an appealing mix of capability and affordability. Another part of the reason was that I had begun accumulating business (as opposed to personal) contacts more rapidly than I could keep up with them in my head.
(Which is exactly what I’d done with contact information up to then.) For phone numbers, or Christmas card addresses, or whatever, I had information on 100 to 150 people in my head, and I’d never had any trouble accessing it accurately.
Ah, but automate that process, and that mental ability begins to atrophy. First there were electronic directories (or even phone dialers; remember their brief heyday?); then ubiquitous cell phones; and now, in the smartphone era, you just say the name. (So eventually, will we lose not only the ability to remember our friends’ numbers, but also the ability to spell their names?)
This article refers to that atrophy, but also talks about new memorization techniques, an annual competition, and such. It’s a good read. I’ll probably have more to say about it sometime soon. I’m not doing anything of this scope, but I do try to give myself quotidian opportunities to exercise my memory.
At our Christmas service last year, I encouraged Nathan to memorize his reading, just to see if he could. He did.
It feels wrong to let the ability go peacefully, so I’m going to try to hang onto it, and encourage it in my loved ones. I blogged a bit before about my great, great aunt who had the entire Bible memorized. It’s very easy for me to say “surely if she could do that…”
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