Why do I do this, does anyone else do this, and how can I stop doing it!

[Misak]

I'm not actually expecting anyone to be able to answer my questions but I'm incredibly frustrated with myself and wondering if there's something wrong!

This weekend I watched a really thorough documentary about the events leading up to 9/11, the political aftermath, the USA's response, the rise of the Taliban, the US occupation of Afghanistan, its subsequent withdrawal etc.

I found it easy to follow - fascinating, instructive, informative, heartbreaking, frightening etc. But, despite this, I've already forgotten so much of it and struggled to explain it all to one of my dc. It's like I watched it 2 years ago, not this weekend. I'm seriously wondering if I have some sort of mild cognitive impairment.

Does this happen to anyone else? And, as an aside, does anyone have recommendations of other programmes on the subject that I can watch (and immediately forget!)

I love this thread. I no longer feel panic when I can't recall small details. I'm not dementing, its normal. Thank youl

I feel so much better for reading this thread op. I’m exactly the same. My children laugh at me because they notice me watching the same episode of a tv show multiple times over. Each time I watch I’ve never seen it before

Perfectly normal. There's a big emphasis in teaching these days on spaced repetition to help knowledge go into the long term memory.

I'm using the Duolingo app to learn a language. I practise the same bit of vocab so much in a unit that I'm convinced I must remember it. But a few units later, I'm learning something new and have forgotten what I thought I knew. Which is why Duolingo chucks in loads of revision lessons along the way.

I find that if I listen to a really interesting podcast, I can tell someone what the podcast was about but can't remember any of the details.
But if, a little while later, I listen to a different podcast about the same thing, some of it will sound familiar and a bit more seems to go into my long term memory.

I once went round the National Gallery in London and on my way out, someone asked me if I would take part in a survey. I said fine. First question: 'Can you name or describe three paintings you liked?'

Well, I couldn't. I was mortified. I could remember one title and one other painting that I described. The person doing the survey said I was not at all unusual.

I think if subject matter is completely new to you, and detailed, it's hard to take most of it in. This is why good teachers are so valuable.

I can only remember things if I take notes, which I obviously don’t do watching telly.

@cariadlet I listen to lots of podcasts true crime, history, conspiracy theories and I enjoy listening to them but I’m the same when it comes to the details
I’ve started writing down what I’ve watched on Tv (mainly dramas) or Netflix and what books I’ve read as I literally cannot remember

Sending sympathy, OP. Fellow goldfish brain here. Some stuff sticks but most of it just goes in one ear and falls straight out the other as soon as I lie down in bed. Menopause and years of insomnia have done their worst, unfortunately. Magnesium helps a bit.

If you want fascinating analysis of historical & contemporary military/political events, though, search Dr Sarah Paine’s stuff on YouTube. She’s an academic, a whip-smart intellectual with a brilliantly pithy, down-to-earth delivery. Her explanations of complex events and their repercussions are so absorbing - I could listen to her for hours.

I’m the same. Oddly enough I was thinking about this earlier and believe it’s why I will never be able to successfully complete any type of training or degree, etc because even when I have a keen interest in something the information just doesn’t get retained. It actually really upsets me.

This has bigger ramifications too. I can’t even remember the cause of death (on the certificates) for both of my parents, for example.

@MyShare oh my god I didn't see yours, that's amazing! Was yours the Newcastle/Forest match as well? If so maybe there was some sort of weird spell on that game that erased the outcome from everyone's memories 😂

I think it depends on a lot of things. I'm re-watching Frasier and I guess because it's lighthearted I can't remember a lot of it already.

But if you ask me to remember episodes of Inside No 9, I can remember them in quite a lot of detail. Even after one viewing. Because I absolutely love them and they completely capture my imagination. Similarly with paintings, I will remember the names and the artist if I really love the work. This might be something to do with strong emotional response?

in terms of factual stuff, I think it's like Sherlock's brain attic theory. We only have room to remember stuff that is directly important to us.

I'm a TV news producer. I can load my brain with all the info needed to produce my stories for the day, but as soon as we're off air it all goes poof!

I envy people who can retain information. I can easily understand complicated concepts and ideas but sometimes I feel a bit stupid compared to people with facts at their fingertips.

What a strange response, the OP was watching a documentary about 9/11, hardly some random tik tok rubbish

Yes it was!!! 🤣🤣

Oh my friends are Forest fans - what was the score (if you can remember!)

4-3 to Newcastle 🤣🤣

@MyShare omg that's made me so happy I now feel like it's not my fault 🤣🤣

9/11 was global misery though, and its causes and consequences continue… not to minimise it, but we do get an enormous amount of coverage of global misery via our phones. We’re assaulted by an enormous amount of information every time we pick up a smartphone. It’s got to have some kind of effect on mood and maybe memory.

Possibly on mood but why would it affect OP being able to recall detail? Mindless scrolling yes, never going to retain, but an insightful documentary is quite different.

Because we are presented with so much information ALL the time …

I read some research on this, but I've totally forgot what it's called!

Basically to summarise what I remember: we much easily remember the feelings the pieces evoked but don't often store the details of those pieces.

It's why we can say oh that's a good read I recommend it, but can't remember all the details of it.

Are you dyslexic? What you’ve described would sum up my family members with dyslexia. They have many other amazing strengths but short term memory recall isn’t one of them.

Don’t worry about what is “normal”, people learn and digest information in lots of different ways. There’s no right or wrong.

Another example for me would be marvel movies. Seen them all over and over. Can't remember what happens in any of them.

I was on a training course recently to do with teaching small children maths. Apparently we forget 70% of all new information in the first 24 hrs. 90% within a week if we don’t revisit it.

Thank you for all the responses - it seems I'm in good company!

Back in the day when I did exams I found it fairly easy to memorise information and just regurgitate it. The problem with that though was that memorising it didn't necessarily mean understanding it. Now the switch has flipped and I can understand information - but can't remember it!

Thanks for the recommendation of Dr Sarah Paine (whose name I'd obviously forgotten and had to scroll back to find!) - I will look her up.