I was watching an episode of Anger Management on TV the other day. The main character, Charlie, lost his cell phone and was unable to call his girlfriend, ex-wife or daughter on a borrowed phone because he didn’t know their phone numbers. He had never committed them to memory because he’d become accustomed to just touching their photos on his Smartphone to make the calls.

Yikes!

I don’t program phone numbers into my phone. I memorize the phone numbers. I don’t use the feature on web sites which offers to save my passwords for me.  I know; I would save the time it would take to type them but I have to ask myself; what am I trading for this convenience?

Besides, why should I outsource something to a computer that I can easily handle myself?

I think the price we pay for such convenience is too high. It is our brain functioning which is at stake.

The term “use it or lose it” is not new to us. I think its time to apply this to the way in which we use our brains!

Do you think we rely too much on our Smartphones and computers to remember our numbers and passwords for us? Is there a danger in this? Is your brain on cruise control?

Photo credit: Brewbooks