The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

-d -h -min -sec

Google Digital

Is Google causing people to suffer from 'digital amnesia'?

Author

By Natalie Mortimer, N/A

July 5, 2015 | 2 min read

The reliance on Google and other search engines to recall information is leading people to suffer from 'Digital Amnesia' as people now depend on the internet and smartphones to store important information.

According to a study from Kaspersky Lab, a software security group, 91 per cent of Americans surveyed admitted their dependency on the internet and devices as a tool for remembering and as an extension of their brain. Similarly, 79.5 per cent of Europeans admitted using the internet as a universal reference book.

In the UK 71 per cent of connected adults can't recall their children's phone numbers, while just under half (49 per cent) don't remember their partner's.

Of those surveyed globally, more than 51 per cent of American and 40 per cent of European respondents (especially women and younger people) claim that for them the loss or compromise of data stored on digital devices, and smartphones in particular, would cause immense distress.

Similarly over 25 per cent of women surveyed in both regions as well as over 34 per cent of younger respondents globally say they would panic if they lost their devices as these devices are the only place they store photos, messages and contact information.

Despite this just 28 per cent of those surveyed in America noted that they do not protect any of their devices, while just one in three installs extra security on their smartphone (30.5 per cent) and just one in five does so on their tablet (20.5 per cent).

Google Digital

More from Google

View all

Trending

Industry insights

View all
Add your own content +