Bookish Diversions: Memory Enhancement

Books as Technology and Therapy for Recall, Reading Habits, Kids These Days, More

¶ Technology for memory. In Plato’s dialogue The Phaedrus, the Egyptian King Thamus says that writing will make people’s memory atrophy. Why? Because they’ll outsource their native abilities to the page. There’s more going on in his argument of course, but I don’t buy it. I remember plenty because I read it in a book. The very format of books encourage …