The Science of Forgetting: Why We're Already Losing Our Pandemic Memories and Why Note-Taking Apps Don't Make Us Smarter

The Science of Forgetting: Why We're Already Losing Our Pandemic Memories and Why Note-Taking Apps Don't Make Us Smarter

In the fast-paced modern world, our memories are constantly at risk of fading away. According to cognitive psychology professor Norman Brown, forgetting is the default state of our brains. Our memories go through three phases: encoding, consolidation, and retrieval. When we encounter new information, our brains encode it by making changes in neurons in the hippocampus and other important memory centers. These changes create physical memory traces known as engrams.

However, much of this information is lost unless it goes through the process of memory consolidation, which often occurs during sleep. During consolidation, memories become more stable and long-term. The hippocampus stores an index of where these memory neurons are located for easy retrieval, similar to a Google search. When we retrieve memories, the neurons in the hippocampus and cortex are reactivated.

Our memories are primarily centered around our life stories and the events that personally affected us the most. However, even salient and emotional events can become difficult to capture and remember as we accumulate more life experiences. New memories interfere with older ones, and events that are uniform and similar are harder to recall. This is why our memories from specific years, such as those during the Covid-19 pandemic, may become unclear and hazy over time.

Interestingly, as a society, many people do not want to hold onto their memories of the Covid-19 pandemic. Humans tend to view the future more positively than the past, as the future can be imagined in many ways compared to the fixed nature of the past. Remembering the past is influenced by our current emotions, knowledge, and attitudes. This bias towards the future may impact how we look back on the pandemic and shape our actions moving forward.

While individuals pass down their knowledge and family history to future generations, these communicative memories usually only last for two or three generations. Without cultural artifacts like books, movies, statues, and museums, memories of the pandemic may also fade away and be forgotten by future generations.

In this age of abundant information, note-taking apps have become popular tools for storing and organizing data. However, relying solely on these apps may not make us smarter or more insightful. These apps are designed for storage, not for sparking insights. Journalism, for example, often involves remembering relevant past events, which requires more than just storing information.