Memories aren’t contained just within our heads. They're stored in calendars, pictures, and social media.

A benefit of cognitive offloading is that external memories are more reliable than our internal memories.

A risk of offloading memories is that we may not actually remember offloaded events or knowledge.

When we offload thinking and writing, we risk never developing these skills or the ability to catch errors.

My memory surrounds me. Memories aren’t contained just within our heads. Our memories are stored in calendars and notes, in pictures and photo albums, on social media and in social groups. My knowledge is in my head and in the phone in my pocket. I know my memory is limited, so I offload my memory to a variety of people and things.

Benefits of Cognitive Offloading My Memory

Cognitive offloading is placing some aspects of my memory, knowledge, and thinking outside my own head. This is one of the glorious things about writing—I can keep my memories in a more reliable form. This is also why I need my calendars. I know my standard weekly schedule and always remember to show up for my classes and office hours. But I have a lot of extra meetings and appointments. I don’t remember these. But my phone and email calendars remind me. And I rarely miss an important meeting.

I also keep some of my memory and knowledge inside the brains of other people. Social groups have always involved cognitive offloading. I know who in my family has which knowledge. I count on some of my friends to track and manage some of our joint activities. Knowing where to find a memory or bit of knowledge from your friends and family is a form of cognitive offloading called transactive memory (Wegner, 1986; Wegner, Erber, & Raymond, 1991). I don’t have to remember everything if I know who holds what ideas in their heads. We are smarter as a group than any one of us is alone.

The Risks of Offloading Memories

I offload my memories because I know that I forget things, especially appointments. Unfortunately, offloading memories seems to mean that I will forget. This is one of the risks of cognitive........

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