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Comment by reaperducer | Hacker News Reader

People used to easily remember dozens and dozens of phone numbers, because that's just what you did.

Today, people Google phone numbers they use regularly. I've had interactions with people who have a hard time even remembering their own phone number.

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I still remember lots of phone numbers, but they're all from the days before the contact list in my phone. Besides those the only new one I remember is my own.

We now have to remember lots of passwords. That’s pretty much the same memorization job.

People nowadays have no trouble remembering the ig, twitter, tiktok, twitch handles of the people they follow.

So? People just use that memory to remember something else. I don’t think technology has made anyone smarter or dumber. It just changes what you think and remember, often with minimal real effects on society (at least due to changes in how your brain is used).

You're basing this on the law of averages?

Kids these days, they don't even remember their workstation's MAC address !

why would you need to remember your own phone number. I talk to almost no one via my phone number. I can't think of a single friend I've needed to share a phone number with in ~10 years. Most of them I contact via FB Messenger, some via WhatsApp, others via Line, none of them do I call on via their phone number

Maybe phone numbers are just old crap best left in the past

Yes, I get we still use them for registering accounts but they suck IMO and need to be phased out. People move countries, numbers change or get stolen or get revoked.

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