WEBVTT

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This is Dory.

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Everybody knows Dory.

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She's everybody's favorite,
cute, blue fish from "Finding Nemo."

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Everybody likes Dory.

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I think the reason everybody likes Dory
is because she's relatable.

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We're all a lot like Dory
in two pretty big ways:

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Just like Dory, we all have
adorably short attention spans.

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It's true.

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In 2000, the average human
attention span was 12 seconds.

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in 2015, it had dropped to 8.25 seconds,
eight and a quarter seconds.

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For a little bit of context,

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the average attention span
of a goldfish is 9 seconds.

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Just like Dory, we're not
very good at concentrating.

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And just like Dory, we all suffer
from a touch of memory loss.

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Hate to break it to you; just like Dory--

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Dory's probably one of her biggest traits
is her short-term memory loss.

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Yours isn't quite as bad,
but it's definitely there.

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The thing is we weren't
always this much like Dory.

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We used to be a lot more
like Marlin, Nemo's dad.

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We could actually concentrate
and remember things.

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But in the last 20, 30 years, or so
we started to become a lot more Doryaque.

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There's a reason for that,

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and it has to do with the explosion
of digital technology

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and this concept called neuro-plasticity.

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Sound's complicated, but it's not.

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It's just the idea
your brain is adaptable,

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it can change and reorganize itself.

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Because your brain is made up of
around 21 billion brain cells or neurons,

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and they make all sorts
of connections between each other.

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That's how you think.

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Every time you experience something,

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those connections change a little bit

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and that's what's learned.

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Let's say I'm walking down the street
and I run into somebody walking their dog.

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It's a cute, cuddly, little thing,
and I stop to pat it.

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Then my brain reinforces the connection,

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"Oh! Dogs are cute, and they're nice.
I don't have to be scared of dogs."

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But if I'm walking down the street,
I walk pass somebody's house,

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and there's this rottweiler out
in the front yard, barking, growling,

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it's lunging at me, and I'm freaked out.

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Then my brain makes the connection,
"You know what? Dogs are scary.

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I need to be a little careful
around dogs from now on."

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That's the idea of neuro-plasticity.

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It's that your brain can change
depending on the experiences you have.

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But what that means is every time
you interact with a piece of technology,

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whether it's your phone,
computer, whatever,

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your brain changes a little bit.

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What digital technology does
is it promotes multi-tasking.

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It encourages you to multi-task,
to refocus your attention between things,

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like you're sitting down
at your desk writing something,

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and then you check your phone,
then you go back to writing,

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then you reply to an email,
and then you go back to writing.

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You're getting a lot more practice
shifting you attention

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than you would have 20 or 30 years ago

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before digital technology
became such big thing.

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Your brain is like a muscle, it changes,

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and the more you use it,
the better it gets, the stronger it gets,

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and the less you use it,
the weaker it gets.

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So all this practice
of reshifting your attention

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means that you have gotten
really good at multi-tasking,

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but at the expense
of your ability to concentrate.

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The same thing happens
to your memory, too

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- has happened, is happening -

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if you don't use it, you lose it.

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Humans have this process
called transactive memory

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And again, it sounds fancy.
It's pretty simple.

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It's just the idea
that if I don't know something

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I can ask somebody
who does know that thing,

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and they'll be able to tell me.

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I don't know very much
about the TV show "Doctor Who,"

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but my friend Ben does.

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So if I need to know
this Doctor Who factoid or tidbit,

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I can ask Ben and the odds are
he'll be able to tell me about it.

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And visa versa: if Ben needs
to know something that I know,

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he can ask me and I can tell him.

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That's the idea behind transactive memory:

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that if everybody in a social group,
no matter how big that social group is,

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whether it's me and Ben,

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or me and my family,
or me and all of my friends,

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if everybody in that group
is responsible for remembering

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only a part of the information,

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then everybody in the group
has access to all of the information,

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which is a lot more than any of them
could remember by themselves.

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That's for all you visual learners
in case you wanted to read it.

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Traditionally, humans used each other
as transactive memory partners

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who would rely on each other
to remember things.

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But since digital memory
has become so readily available,

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we started to rely
on computers on the Internet

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as transactive memory partners,
which is kind of cool.

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But the thing is computers are better
at remembering than humans:

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(a) they don't forget things,

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(& b) they know almost everything
thanks to the Internet.

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That means every time you use a computer
as a transactive memory partner,

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it's like you're interacting
with this super person,

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somebody who's so, so, so,
so, so good at remembering

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you can't even comprehend it.

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That's a different experience

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than the one you would've had
20, 30 years ago

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when you were mostly having transactive
memory processes with other people.

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It's a different experience

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which means your brain
reacts to it differently

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and has changed because of that.

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Here's how it's changed
- and a study was actually done on this -

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and what they found

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is that if you use a computer
as a transactive memory partner,

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you are actually a little bit worst
at remembering that information

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which makes sense; that's what
transactive memory partners do.

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Let's say I'm given
a list of facts to read,

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and I'm asked to remember
as many of them as possible.

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If I copy that list of facts
into a computer first,

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I will remember less of them

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because by copying them
into the computer,

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I'm establishing the computer
as a transactive memory partner.

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So I subconsciously go,

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"Oh, hey! it's remembering it
for me; I don't need to,"

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and then I forget some of them.

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The thing is that will happen,

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whether or not I'm trying
to remember the facts.

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The subconscious drive
for me to rely on that computer

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to remember part of the information for me

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is so strong that it's overpowering
my conscious effort to remember.

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Every time a computer is involved
in a transactive memory process with you,

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it induces a lit bit
of memory loss on that subject.

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That sounds kind of scary.

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It's like, "Ah! I don't want
to be like Dory anymore.

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I thought this will be
a cute presentation."

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Don't worry; all I can say is this:

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as long as we as humans
keep using technology,

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our brains will keep changing,
keep adapting to it.

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That's not good or bad, it just is.

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It's a fact of our lives at this moment.

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But I don't think it's a fact
you should ignore

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Because if you ignore it,
but you continue to use tech,

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you won't have any say in
how it may or may not change you.

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You'll just be going along for the ride
whether you like it or not.

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The whole reason
I've been telling you this,

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sharing this information with you,

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telling you how and why
technology can influence you

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is so that you can accept it
and do something about it.

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Because once you accept that knowledge,

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you can start to ask yourself questions,

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say things to yourself,
like "You know what self?

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I'll re-train myself to concentrate"

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-- because you can do that.

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If not practicing your concentration
has made you worst at it,

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then if you practice it,
you'll get better.

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Or maybe you'll say to yourself,

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"You know what self? I'll embrace
that short attention span

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and become this multi-tasking machine."

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That's a perfectly valid option.

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But most importantly, you've chosen
which path you wanted to pursue.

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Let's be honest here:

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we're all like Dory
and technology has made us so.

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You are all like Dory.

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And what that means

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is you probably haven't been able
to pay attention to most of my talk.

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Just do this one thing for me:

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accept the knowledge I've given you.

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Don't panic when you think about it,
just accept it, but then use it.

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Decide on your course of action.

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Take a deep breath and follow it.

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Even if the going gets tough,
or weird, or scary,

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don't panic and just keep swimming.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)