Internet is leading everyone to forget important information as 'digital amnesia' takes hold

People are handing over the responsibility of remembering important information to their phones

David Cameron on his mobile phone. (Andrew Parsons | Conservative Party via Getty Images)

People are forgetting important information because they’ve handed over responsibility for remembering it to their phones, a new study has found.

Most people can’t remember the phone numbers of their children or their schools, or their work, the study by Kaspersky found — but 47 per cent of people could remember their home phone number between the ages of 10 and 15.

The forgetting seems to be a consequence of people never needing to remember because the information is always accessible on a phone, with 53 per cent of young people saying that their smartphone has all the information they need to know.

The effect, called “digital amnesia” by the cyber security company, applies across all age groups and equally between men and women, it said.

As we give over the power of information to our devices, the risk of losing them becomes greater, the study found. Among women, 44 per cent would be “overwhelmed by sadness” if they lost their devices and so lost memories they might never get back. A large number of women and young people would “panic”, since their devices are the only places they store their important data.