Are we too dependent on our devices?

Humans have always offloaded cognition to external tools, like writing things down, drawing maps, and keeping calendars. These extend our memory and reasoning without diminishing it. This kind of cognitive offloading is not inherently harmful. In many cases, it frees up mental capacity for higher-order thinking.

The problem researchers are increasingly documenting is different: when devices don't just assist our thinking, but replace the cognitive practice that builds and maintains mental skills. The atrophy is slow and easy to miss, but it accumulates.

A key distinction: using a calculator occasionally is a tool. Losing the ability to do basic arithmetic mentally because you've never done it without one is dependency. The question isn't whether you use technology, it's whether your brain still works without it.

In 2011, cognitive psychologists Betsy Sparrow, Jenny Liu, and Daniel Wegner published a landmark study in Science documenting what they called the Google Effect: when people believe information can be found online, they are significantly less likely to encode it in memory. They remember where to find the answer, not what the answer is.

This is a form of transactive memory, a strategy of distributing knowledge across a network, remembering who (or what) knows what, rather than the knowledge itself. Humans have always done this with other people. What's new is the scale and speed of offloading to a device that is always with us.

The concern isn't that any given piece of information is forgotten. It's the cumulative effect: when we consistently avoid the work of remembering, the mental pathways that support memory consolidation get less exercise. And memory isn't just storage. It's the foundation on which reasoning, creativity, and problem-solving are built.

Spatial navigation is one of the oldest and most deeply rooted cognitive functions in the human brain. The hippocampus, a region central to both navigation and memory formation, is one of the areas most affected by chronic GPS dependence.

A 2020 study published in Nature Communications by Louisa Dahmani and Véronique Bohbot found that habitual GPS users performed worse on spatial memory tasks and showed lower hippocampal activity during navigation compared to those who navigated independently. The finding wasn't limited to driving. It reflected a broader reduction in the brain's capacity for spatial reasoning.

The hippocampus also plays a central role in forming episodic memories, our sense of personal history and narrative. Research suggests that chronic GPS reliance may have effects that extend well beyond getting from point A to point B.

The researchers called this “brain drain”. The phone doesn't have to be in use to pull your attention. The habit of checking, and the anticipation of checking, occupies mental resources even when you're trying to focus on something else. The same device is simultaneously a cognitive tool and a cognitive tax.

Average working memory score by phone location (Experiment 1). Higher is better.

Source: Ward et al., “Brain Drain,” Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 2017. Approximate means from Figure 1A.

Smartphones and search engines changed how we store and retrieve information. AI assistants are beginning to change something more fundamental: how we think.

When an AI writes your emails, outlines your arguments, summarizes your reading, and answers your questions before you've had a chance to sit with them, the cognitive work that used to build those skills simply doesn't happen. We are in the earliest stages of understanding what this means for human cognition, but the pattern is consistent with what we already know: practice builds capability, and outsourcing eliminates the practice.

This is not an argument against AI any more than this site is an argument against technology. It is an argument for intentionality. Being aware of what you're offloading, and why you're offloading it, is the first step toward using these tools as amplifiers rather than replacements.

The research points in a consistent direction: the brain responds to practice and atrophies from disuse. The good news is that it also responds to deliberate effort.

Simple, concrete habits make a difference. Navigate a familiar route without GPS. Travel somewhere new relying only on road signs or a paper map. Do the mental arithmetic before reaching for a calculator. Sit with a question for a moment before searching. Write something by hand. Read a long piece all the way through without switching tabs.

None of this requires rejecting technology. It requires being selective about when you reach for it and making space for your brain to do its own work.

If you are looking for more practical strategies, the Help Yourself page has guidance on reducing screen time and changing habits in a sustainable way. And if you are ready to make a larger change, the pledge is a good place to start.