One thing that I have learned in my extensive studies, regarding both psychological and bio-psychological realms, is that the mind and body are quite adaptive. More specifically, it/they conform to a 'conservation of energy' scenario in which processes and functions are allocated on a basis of 'need'. For example, if a function were to be undertaken by exogenous chemicals (like pharmaceuticals), then the body can and will adapt to the presence of same, and may even alter/shut down production of endogenous analogues, and/or change transmission or reception of associated neurotransmitters. Similarly, if a physiological process were to become deemed 'no longer necessary' by the brain, and related automated mechanisms, then it would cease to be supported. One extreme example is the shutdown of processes involved in muscle maintenance and bone density that was discovered to occur when astronauts operated in a zero-gravity environ. These examples are simply a function of the homeostatic needs of the organism in question.
Without getting into too much scientific gobble-de-gook, the mind/body saves energy and resources by altering or even eliminating processes which it deems unnecessary. Recently, I read some information suggesting that Modern Man is coming to rely upon exogenous memory systems, as opposed to storage in what might traditionally be known as long-term (LT) memory. That is, in this age of information, we have come to rely upon the computer/internet as an extension of our own endogenous systems; bookmarks are now memory!
I wholeheartedly agree with the concept; it's not that we 'need' such an exogenous memory system, but just that it is there, and we do use it, so the logical and proper reaction by the mind and body would be to adapt. It's all about informational overload, folks. What would we do without 'stickies' and bookmarks? There is just way too much going on in the minds of Modern Man; zooming around through the maze of information, available 24/7 via both computers and cell phones. Who among us can say that they have not become lost in the internet 'process', ending up asking oneself, "how the hell did I get HERE, and what the hell was I looking for again?". Nobody.
Although it would be difficult to measure, I think it's safe to say that the pure volume of information that we access and process daily would simply overwhelm anyone unexposed to the information age (say, an aborigine or somebody from the [not so distant] past). But we cope, with our new memory systems, and we will continue to adapt (bookmarks! booyeah!). Why bother remembering something when its only 'a click away'? Makes good sense to me, and reminds me of the 'learn-and-dump' memory system that was necessitated during my college years; so much information was needed to be retained, but only for constrained periods--till the 'test'. Henceforth, the majority of the information 'learned' became quickly inaccessible--no room for that crap we don't really need. Of course, overlapping and/or basic knowledge which was to be built upon likely forced its way into LT (endogenous) memory. However, given the definition of learning, then, as it pertains to storage into LT memory, it is fairly safe to say that I have forgotten more than I ever learned! What a hoot of a concept; It's funny because its true. Lol!
Given the foregoing, it seems that one might wish to consciously mediate our 'new' memory processes, in order to take advantage--to maximize "retention" capabilities, while minimizing expenditures. Keep in mind that this is not limited to simply bookmarks--that is just a grand analogy which may include myriad other resources and/or processes. One thing that I have found to be helpful is to categorize my bookmarks into nested folders, with related information. This minimizes temporal cues, but since I have nearly lost all capacity for temporal-based memory ("...just the other day" phenomenon), it seems to help keep things organized. A while back (seems like just the other day/week/month/year [?]) I began to keep documents and such in folders labelled 'recent (this-n-that)', but it didn't help much. Now I have a bunch of damned 'recent this-n-that' folders that I have to look through, in order to find crap I forgot wherever-the-hell-it-is. I will self-suggest that labeling by month might prove to be a better system, then nesting those by year(?). Dunno--I'm just becoming cognizant of this whole exogenous memory stuff--with practice, my pseudo-memory will likely improve ;) Any one else suggest some working model??
GT
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