Smartphones and the Future of Remembering: Frictions, Problems, and Pathways

Abstract

This ethnographic case study discusses friction in everyday information-seeking on smartphones and proposes new pathways for addressing these barriers. Our study delves into how smartphones have become integral tools for memory recall and inscription, creating multiple types of mnemonic friction. We draw on Andy Clark and David Chalmers's “Extended Mind Thesis” to situate our case dan to emphasize that smartphones are more than just a device we own—they inform who we are and what we are capable of. But smartphones also produce new kinds of social, psychological, and epistemic problems. Our case surfaces how users confront an ever-increasing pool of sometimes interconnected, sometimes incommensurate, and often intractable mobile phone memories. We explore the consequences of this friction for power, capabilities, culture, and the challenges of information overload in an era where people have become inextricably reliant on smartphones for memory, learning, knowledge, sociality, and practical action.