“Digital dementia is the idea that our smart devices are making us less smart,” he explains on the mindbodygreen podcast. “They act as external memory stores for us, so we don’t have to flex our memory muscles.”

Consider the phone number example mentioned above: now that our smartphones have the ability to store contacts, we don’t have to worry about remembering people’s numbers, so we don’t. This, in a way, makes us more dependent on these devices. “You can text or call someone every day,” Quick says, but what if your phone had no battery or you didn’t have it with you? You would be helpless!

This does not mean that you have to remember your entire contact list. “But we should be concerned that we have lost the ability to remember alone [number]or a PIN, or a passcode, or a seed phrase,” adds Kwik.

Technology is certainly convenient, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t flex your memory muscles from time to time. It’s the same reason experts recommend taking the stairs every now and then, even if you have access to an elevator—inactivity comes at a cost.