{"id":3834,"date":"2010-02-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1970-01-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=3834"},"modified":"2014-02-17T21:34:39","modified_gmt":"2014-02-18T05:34:39","slug":"imemories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=3834","title":{"rendered":"iMemories"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"iphone-4s-devices\"<\/a>I used to have a pretty good memory, but now there’s an app for that.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I used to have a pretty good memory. Now I have an iPhone<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Actually, I used to pride myself on having a great memory; at least I think I did. To tell you the truth, it’s a little bit fuzzy. I know I used to be really good at Trivial Pursuit<\/a>. Remember that game? I was much better at Trivial Pursuit than I am at Sequence, where the cards are all face down and you have to remember where they are and put matching sets together. Wait that’s not Sequence, that’s another game. Concentration? I know it’s not Scrabble. I’ll have to email my sister to find out the name of that game. One of her daughters was really good at that game.<\/p>\n

Anyway, as I said, I used to have a pretty good memory. At least I think I did. Now I don’t have to remember anything anymore because I can look it up on my iPhone-as long as I remember to charge my battery.<\/p>\n

I recently read somewhere-I wish I could remember where-that you shouldn’t worry if you pick up the phone and can’t remember who you were going to call. But if you can’t remember how to use the phone, then it’s time to worry.<\/p>\n

Boy, that’s a relief. I still know how to use the phone, although if I lost it I might not be able to figure out how to find my way home without its GPS app.<\/p>\n

Now what was I saying? Oh yeah, I used to have a pretty good memory but now that I have so much information at my fingertips I don’t really need to remember so many things, which is good, because I can’t do that anymore.<\/p>\n

The one thing I’ve never been good at remembering are people’s names. Somehow I always find myself thinking up fictional new names for them before I’ve memorized the originals. Don’t you think Lindsey Vonn seems more like a Bunny McPhearson and Jon Hamm should really be named Dirk McHandsome? I’ve got nicknames for people I’ve never even met, but when I meet new people I tend to forget their names instantaneously, before they’ve even made their way into my brain.<\/p>\n

I would worry that this issue with names was a sign of old age, but I’ve been doing it as long as I can remember, which is still pretty long.<\/p>\n

There are two ways I get around this name-forgetting problem (I suppose paying better attention would also work, but somehow that is much too hard for me). One, I hope that someone else whose name I don’t remember comes up to us and I can instruct them to introduce themselves or, two, I hand over my iPhone and ask the new person to put their name and their number into it. Of course the danger with this is that I end up making social plans with people I don’t know, while I barely have time to see my close friends and family. Luckily I can still text them or keep up with them on Facebook using my iPhone.<\/p>\n

But I still can’t remember the name of that Memory game that my niece was so good at. Maybe I can find it online on my phone. There it is. It’s called “Memory.” Huh. Memory. Doesn’t it seem more like it should be named Concentrate McBoardGame?<\/p>\n

Share your hazy reflections with Leslie@LeslieDinaberg.com. For more columns visit www.LeslieDinaberg.com.\u00a0Originally published in the\u00a0Santa Barbara Daily Sound\u00a0<\/a>on February 26, 2010.<\/h6>\n

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