Phone number vs Birthdates

I hardly remember the time when most people still memorizes phone numbers. That's around a decade ago. The rotary dialphone used to be the most trendy gadget to have in every household, or the can-never-be-bigger cellphone usually became a symbol for individuals and business persons. All these does not have the ability to save phone numbers, so the users still had to stick series of 6 or 7 numbers (the number of digits that a typical phone number has at that time) in their head.

Then came the "modern" cell phone that could do more than what is expected. They could save UNLIMITED quantity of phone numbers so that the users could just retrieve them from few press of buttons. No memorizing work needed at all. And if you are anxious to lose the scenic views in life or forget the melody that you just hummed, there's the camera phone with picture and video taking features.

Being a person who has gone through the transition period, I find that the former cultivates a good culture with which human memory gets better. As the number of phone number that you have to memorize increases, your memory power increases. That reflects the amazing brain that we have, one that is not limited by the amount of space available, but the memory space is upgraded every time we try to stuff in more stuff. Nevertheless, I'm a strong proponent of technologies that will help us become more productive.

"You need someone's phone number? I don't remember but my phone has it!"

Similarly, facebook has a feature that reminds you of birthdays in your friends list. Most of the time I remember someone's birth date when I see it in the facebook notification. So I don't remember everyone else's birth date except for a few.

"You want to know someone's birthdate? I don't remember but my facebook has it!"