Excited to be on the New York Times site this am thinking about technology and its possible impact on our children’s memories:
Here’s an excerpt. Head to the site for the full piece.
Oliver Sacks wrote in his posthumous book of essays, “The River of Consciousness,” “There is no way by which the events of the world can be directly transmitted or recorded in our brains … our only truth is narrative truth, the stories we tell each other and ourselves — the stories we continually re-categorize and refine.” Given this innate fallibility, it’s not necessarily a negative to let technology reinforce our memories, but it does seem worth noting how the immediacy of it may change the story for our children.
Hi Julia! I cannot figure out how to contact you via your contact page b/c every time I try to fill out the info it jumps to a photo of you and your daughter . . . so I thought I’d try you this way! I’m the author of the book How to Break Up With Your Phone (phonebreakup.com) and founder of Screen/Life Balance (screenlifebalance.com) and just wanted to write you a personal note thanking you for your beautiful piece in the NY Times about how technology is affecting our children’s memories. I could not agree more with your message—and am grateful to you for communicating it in such a well researched and beautifully written (and poignant) way. I look forward to reading your next piece!
Thank you so much for writing Catherine and for the kind words! I will be sure to check out your work. I’m not 100% sure, but my daughter is saying they learned about your book in school technology class.