Benjamin C. Storm, the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, is convinced that is affecting, and in a very profound way, our ability to remember.
"We use the Internet as a kind of crutch, as a support for memory, but every time we do depend more on this technology," said Storm, who coordinated a study on this matter in which other experts from the same university involved and Illinois.
In an essay published in the journal Memory, these researchers conclude that the tendency to access the network for questions on issues we think we know or remember details about them not only can adversely affect our ability to keep memories, but increases each once we do.
To determine this, two groups of volunteers who will answer a few questions were asked. To respond, members of one of them could use an online search engine, while others must rely solely on their brain.
Then they raised them to use the method they wanted to meet increasingly simple questions. The results showed that those who had used the Internet in the first place were much more likely to also use it then and do it more quickly, that is, spending less time trying to remember. In fact, 30% of them failed to answer a few simple questions when they were then asked not to use the internet to answer them.
"The available information increases and mobile devices allow us to access it increasingly easy, so we become more dependent every day," says Storm. However, researchers say that still will take time before it can be confirmed whether this phenomenon has any real effect on our memory capacity.