why do we forget stuff as we get older?

Some people remember a lot about their early childhoods--and others do not (I do, my brother doesn't). Actually, I remember more of the people that I knew in early childhood than I do people from my 20s. I often think back to when I was still in my crib, and my baby brother was born--I had just turned three.

Hi Nicky,

it is, as you say, very easy to forget things as we get older. There are a number of reasons for this.

With age there is some degradation in our brain activity and this is accelerated in those people who eventually grow to suffer from any of the various forms of dementia.

However, there is another reason for the forgetting of things...nothing to do with mental activity or health...each year we learn so many new things.

Imagine you are at Junior school, you will know probably all of the other students by sight, and a lot of them by name, others more intimately as they become friends (or enemies!) There may be 3/400 students at any one time (or more) plus all the teachers, etc.

When you reach the age of secondary school (high school) you start all over again, with some of the same friends from the earlier school, but several hundred others, plus all the existing students who are a little older than you...each year there will be approximately the same number of students join. You will begin remembering all of them.

But not just the students, all the way through school you will be assimilating the facts given to you by your teachers, experiencing games, sports and 'trip' days, etc. All these facts are retained in your brain.

Then you start to meet boys (in your case, not mine!) and you have a whole load of new experiences to remember. Plus hundreds of music tracks, films, television programs, vacations, accidents you see on the street and thousands of other inconsequential things that occur throughout your life.

By the time you are ready to leave school and take up the task of earning a living, or maybe another school (college), where again you'll need to remember another bunch of names, faces and experiences and, of course, start to assimilate another huge bunch of information, you will have 'retained' an absolutely vast amount of 'knowledge'.

As you go through life some of these facts and some of these people will constantly be needed...you won't ever forget these. Other things, however, will be stuck at the back of your mind and not used...these you 'forget'. Sometimes it is possible to recall, after a few moments thought, some of this, but often (as you have obviously found) some of these facts and items of knowledge have slipped away and you just can't recall them.

It is said that the brain never forgets...I'm not sure that is true, and certainly it is not true in practical terms, as there are people I honestly cannot recall the name of who, at school, I spent a great deal of time with.

I believe it is the sheer weight of information that allows some things to slip backwards in your mind. As each year passes you get more and more information packed into your head. Eventually you will 'lose' some.

Think of it like a computer...you start with, say, 50 Gb of memory, the first day you switch it on you start to store a million facts, and each day that goes by you store more...then more...eventually the hard drive gets full, so you 'zip' some of the facts to release a little more space for the information that comes at you daily. Eventually your body will 'start emptying your recycle bin'.

That's not a perfect analogy, but pretty close.

So it is perfectly normal for people to 'lose' information they don't use regularly. The stuff you do use, you retain at the 'front' of your mind.

Your age does have something to do with memory loss, but the biggest problem is the sheer weight of information your brain is forced to carry. this can happen at any age.

Mostly the 'loss' is a very suitable loss, as it is only the stuff you don't really need that gets lost.

Hope that explains it reasonably well...

Now, what was I doing...?

Cheers,

BobSpain.

Because the older you get the more you experience, hence the more you need to remember. You'll find you remember whats important and not trivial crap. For example, who really gives a crap who your first grade teacher was when you're 40? Hopefully by then you've had tons of exciting things to learn and love, and your brain can only hold so much!

i think its not that everyone remembers everything, its just we remember more things that we had strong good or bad feelings with....i dont remember my childhood that good as well ....

but i do remember what i remember, and its cuz most of the other happenings were super normal for me! forgotten days didnt have much extraordinary happenin in them......so i just lived them by and why would my mind remember something as common as walking.....unless u see a cow staring at you or a kid who thwacked your legs running.....!

you know....a common school day might not be remembered but the day you ran away from a beehive you broke cant be ignored!!!

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about the guy.....if u start talkin to him and ask him to tell you somethin more about what he remembers, u will find alot of smile and good reactions on his face,,,, plus hundred things that fascinated him........thats why he remembers more!

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i dont think u have a memory problem....its normal cuz even i dont remember some things that my childhood friends tell me, and they dont what i sometimes utter up.....i wasnt astonished by the things they were by.... and similarly they werent........!

hope i m not memory sick either.....heehee!

we forget some things, but we learn other new things. i guess its a balance

unofrtunately people do forget as they get older...

due to laziness and carelessness.