My "Strong Brain” Party Trick

How I put down my phone and got my memory back

- BY Dayna Evans FROM GAWKER

LIKE MOST PEOPLE, I had a lot of time on my hands these past few years, and I spent most of it on my phone. This has made my brain weak, like a puddle of slime. I've never had a very good memory, but by summer of 2021, I saw the little memory that I did have evaporate unceremoniously while Googling "ben afleCk brther bad 1."

I grew frustrated. I couldn't remember the name of Joan Holloway's military husband from Mad Men without looking it up, or the name of the guy I went to college with who would come into my dorm regularly to talk about how much he worked out, or even the boiling time for a soft-boiled egg. None of this was especially useful or life-changing information, but I wanted to remember it without making a shameful mess of my search history. If people with good memories erect elaborate memory palaces through which to remember stuff, I lived under a bridge in my underpants.