forgetting

Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, a professor at the University of Oxford and author of the 2011 book Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age, told me that digital tools have upended centuries-old practices of retaining our memories.

When it comes to grieving, or moving on from a breakup, forgetting can be a part of the healing process.

“Forgetting helps us to focus on the here and now and on the decisions and the actions we need to take, rather than be tethered to the past.”

Oliver Hardt, who studies the neurobiology of memory and forgetting at McGill University in Montréal, has argued that our overreliance on our phones to look up everything from recipes to directions might be making our memories worse overall.

“Forgetting is not a vice, but a virtue,” he said.