• LandedGentry@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    18
    ·
    3 days ago

    See I agree but the phone number example has me going…so what? I know my wife’s number, my siblings’, and my parents. They’re easy to learn. What do all those land lines I remember from childhood contribute? Why do I need any others now? I need to recall my wife’s for documents that’s about it, and I could use my phone to do it. I need to know it like every 4 years maybe lol

    • PunnyName@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      3 days ago

      One example: getting arrested

      You might not. But you might (especially with this current admin). Cops will never let you use your phone after you’ve been detained. Unless you go free the same night, expect to never have a phone call with anyone but a lawyer or bail bonds agency.

      • LandedGentry@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        3 days ago

        Yes but why do I need to know a grade school friend’s number? As I said I know my wife’s. I know my siblings’. These have changed too, so I’ve memorized them in the smartphone era. If you know no emergency number that’s just bad prep. Everyone should do that.

        But memorizing lots of numbers? Pointless.

    • assembly@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      3 days ago

      Yeah that’s a big part of it…shifting off the stuff that we don’t think is important (and probably isn’t). My view is that it’s escalated to where I’m using my phone calculator for stuff I did in my head in high school (I was a cashier in HS so it was easy)…which is also not a big deal but getting a little bigger than the phone number thing. From there, what if I used it to leverage a new programming API as opposed to using the docs site. Probably not a big deal but bigger than the calculator thing to me. My point is that it’s all these little things that don’t individually matter but together add up to some big changes in the way we think. We are outsourcing our thinking which would be helpful if we used the free capacity for higher level thinking but I’m not sure if we will.

      • LandedGentry@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        edit-2
        3 days ago

        Your parents likely also can’t do quick mental math. That’s not smart phones, that’s just aging. You aren’t drilled anymore. You don’t do it everyday.

        I taught middle schoolers remedial math for years in my 20’s so I actually am very fast at basic arithmetic in my head. It’s because it’s more recent for me. That’s what made shows like are you smarter than a 5th grader kind of deceptive. If you were taught something recently or are currently being drilled on it basically every day, then you’re going to know it better than anybody regardless of their tools or age or intelligence.