When everything is just one tap away

[Reading level: B2 – Upper Intermediate]

Have you ever put rice in the rice cooker but forgotten to press the button, only to realize at mealtime that all you have in the pot is rice soaking in water? Have you ever arrived at work and wondered whether you had lowered the roller shutter at home? Have you ever come home and suddenly realized that the air conditioner had been running full blast while you were away, with the door wide open? Have you ever forgotten to turn off the water heater and left it running until the next day? Chances are you have—if not all of these, then at least one of them.

So why does this happen?

Simply because these things are done so quickly that you cannot remember whether you have done them or not.

Imagine it another way. If one day your roller shutter were out of order, or there was a power outage and you were stuck inside your house until noon, you would probably remember the incident until the following week or even several months later. The same would be true if your rice cooker broke or your air conditioner suddenly started leaking water everywhere.

The difference is that the first set of actions is so familiar that they happen almost automatically. You press a button, pull a door shut, flip a switch, and immediately move on to the next thing. Your brain does not need to devote much attention to them. An unusual problem, on the other hand, forces us to stop, think, find a solution, and sometimes experience emotions such as worry or frustration. That is why such experiences are more likely to leave a mark on our memory.

And modern life is increasingly filled with things that belong to the first group: fast, convenient, and requiring almost no thought.

When everything becomes too convenient

In the past, if we wanted to get to an unfamiliar place, we might have had to ask for directions, remember street names, look at road signs, and picture the route in our minds. Now, we simply open a map app and follow the arrows. By the time we arrive, many of us do not even know which streets we have just passed through.

In the past, if we wanted to remember someone’s birthday, we had to memorize it ourselves or write it down somewhere. Now our phones remind us. Need to do a calculation? There is a calculator. Can’t remember a phone number? Open your contacts. Don’t know an English word? Look it up in an app. Don’t know how to write an email? Ask AI. Need to summarize a long document? AI can do that in just a few seconds too.

This is not necessarily a bad thing. Researchers call the use of external tools to reduce the burden on our memory cognitive offloading—which can simply be understood as “shifting some of the work of remembering and processing information outside the brain.” It helps us complete tasks more quickly and efficiently. But research also suggests that relying on external sources of information may come at a cost: we perform tasks better while the tool is available, but may struggle more when we suddenly no longer have access to it.

AI takes this convenience to an even higher level.

Suppose you receive an email in English. You read it, think about what the sender wants, look up a few unfamiliar words, and then write the reply yourself. It may take you 15 minutes, but during that process, you have read, thought, chosen words, and corrected mistakes.

Now, however, you can simply give the email to AI and say, “Reply to this email professionally.” Five seconds later, it is done.

You have a beautifully written email. But there is another question worth considering: Have you just completed a task, or have you actually learned something? The two are not always the same. Doing something faster does not necessarily mean learning more.

This is particularly important in education. A student comes across a difficult math problem. If they solve it on their own, it may take 20 minutes. They try the first method—it is wrong. They try a second method—still wrong. They go back and read the question again, draw a diagram, and finally work out the solution.

AI can solve the same problem in 10 seconds.

On the surface, 10 seconds is clearly more efficient than 20 minutes. But the purpose of a math problem is not simply to get the answer. The process of struggling to find the solution is also when learners have to recall previous knowledge, try a method, recognize their mistakes, and adjust the way they think.

The same is true of learning a foreign language.

You come across the word “reluctant,” and with just one click, the meaning immediately appears on the screen: “unwilling.” You read it and move on to the next word. Tomorrow, there is a good chance you will have to look it up again.

But if you first try to remember: “I’ve seen this word before. Does it mean hesitant? Or unwilling to do something?”—and only then check the answer, your brain has already had to perform an important task: retrieving information by itself.

Research on learning calls this retrieval practice—practising by trying to bring knowledge back from memory instead of simply rereading it. Together with spacing—reviewing knowledge again after certain intervals—these are two strategies supported by substantial evidence for their ability to improve long-term retention.

Interestingly, this principle does not apply only to vocabulary learning. A meta-analysis of mathematics learning also found benefits from spreading practice over time rather than cramming everything into a single session.

If you want to remember something for a long time, sometimes you have to accept going a little more slowly.

That does not mean we should stop using Google, calculators, learning apps, or AI. Technology exists to make life easier, and there is no reason to deliberately turn a simple task into a difficult one.

The issue lies in when we use these tools. If the goal is simply to complete a task, let technology help you save time. But if the goal is to learn, do not let technology take away the most important part of the work from your brain.

When learning a foreign language, try to recall the meaning of a word before looking it up. Write a sentence yourself before asking AI to correct it. Read a passage, then close the book and see how much you can remember.

When studying math, spend a few minutes trying to find a solution yourself before looking at the answer. After reading the solution, close it and solve the problem again from the beginning. A few days later, come back and try a similar problem without looking at the instructions.

And more importantly, do not try to learn everything in a single session. Return to the material after one day, a few days, and then a week. Each time you have to “struggle” a little to pull information back from memory, you are giving your brain another opportunity to strengthen it.

There is an interesting paradox here: What helps us complete a task the fastest is not necessarily what helps us learn the best. One tap can turn on a rice cooker. One tap can open a map. One prompt can make AI solve a math problem, translate an entire passage, or write a complete email.

But human memory does not have a Save button like a computer. If we want something to truly stay in our minds, sometimes we need to give it a little more time: think for ourselves, remember for ourselves, do things for ourselves, make mistakes, correct them—and then, a few days later, try to remember again.

Perhaps that is why, in an age when everything is becoming faster and faster, learning a little more slowly can sometimes be the best way to remember for longer.

WORD BANK:

soak /soʊk/ [B2] (v): ngâm

roller shutter /ˈroʊ.lɚ ˌʃʌt̬.ɚ/ (n): cửa cuốn

run at full blast /rʌn ˌfʊl ˈblæst/ (v): chạy hết công suất, chạy phà phà

heater /ˈhiː.t̬ɚ/ [B1] (n): bình nóng lạnh

Chances are … /ˈtʃæn.sɪz ɑːr/ (phr): rất có thể là…, khả năng cao là…

out of order /ˌaʊt əv ˈɔːr.dɚ/ [B1] (phr): bị hỏng, không hoạt động

power outage /ˈpaʊ.ɚ ˌaʊ.t̬ɪdʒ/ (n): sự mất điện

incident /ˈɪn.sə.dənt/ [B2] (n): sự việc, sự cố

leak water /liːk ˈwɑː.t̬ɚ/ (phr): rò rỉ nước, chảy nước

flip a switch /ˌflɪp ə ˈswɪtʃ/ (phr): gạt/bật công tắc

devote sth to sth /dɪˈvoʊt/ [B2] (v): dành cái gì cho cái gì

frustration /frʌˈstreɪ.ʃən/ [B2] (n): sự bực bội, thất vọng

leave a mark on sth (phr): để lại dấu ấn lên cái gì

picture sth /ˈpɪk.tʃɚ/ [B1] (v): hình dung, tưởng tượng cái gì

arrow /ˈer.oʊ/ [B1] (n): mũi tên

pass through sth /ˌpæs ˈθruː/ (phr v): đi qua cái gì

look sth up /ˌlʊk ˈʌp/ [B1] (phr v): tra cứu cái gì

not necessarily /ˌnɑːt ˌnes.əˈser.əl.i/ [B2] (adv): không nhất thiết

burden /ˈbɝː.dən/ [B2] (n): gánh nặng

cognitive offloading /ˈkɑːɡ.nə.t̬ɪv ˈɔːfˌloʊ.dɪŋ/ (n): việc chuyển bớt gánh nặng ghi nhớ/xử lý thông tin ra bên ngoài

shift /ʃɪft/ [B2] (v): chuyển, chuyển dịch

come at a cost /ˌkʌm æt ə ˈkɔːst/ (phr): đi kèm với một cái giá, có mặt trái

struggle /ˈstrʌɡ.əl/ [B2] (v): gặp khó khăn, vật lộn

access to sth /ˈæk.ses/ [B2] (n): khả năng tiếp cận/sử dụng cái gì

take sth to a higher level (phr): đưa cái gì lên một tầm cao hơn

suppose sth /səˈpoʊz/ [B1] (v): giả sử cái gì

worth doing sth /wɝːθ/ [B1] (adj): đáng làm gì

come across sth /ˌkʌm əˈkrɔːs/ [B2] (phr v): tình cờ gặp/bắt gặp cái gì

diagram /ˈdaɪ.ə.ɡræm/ [B2] (n): sơ đồ, biểu đồ

work out a solution /ˌwɝːk ˈaʊt/ (phr): tìm ra lời giải/giải pháp

on the surface /ˌɑːn ðə ˈsɝː.fɪs/ (phr): nhìn bề ngoài, thoạt nhìn

recall sth /rɪˈkɑːl/ [B2] (v): nhớ lại, gợi nhớ cái gì

adjust sth /əˈdʒʌst/ [B2] (v): điều chỉnh cái gì

there is a good chance (phr): rất có khả năng, rất có thể

hesitant /ˈhez.ə.tənt/ [C1] (adj): do dự, ngập ngừng

unwilling to do sth /ʌnˈwɪl.ɪŋ/ [B2] (adj): không sẵn lòng làm gì

retrieve (information) /rɪˈtriːv/ [C1] (v): truy xuất, lấy lại (thông tin)

retrieval /rɪˈtriː.vəl/ [C1] (n): sự truy xuất, sự gọi lại thông tin

spacing /ˈspeɪ.sɪŋ/ (n): việc giãn cách các lần học/ôn tập

interval /ˈɪn.t̬ɚ.vəl/ [B2] (n): khoảng thời gian, khoảng cách

strategy /ˈstræt̬.ə.dʒi/ [B2] (n): chiến lược, phương pháp

substantial evidence /səbˌstæn.ʃəl ˈev.ə.dəns/ (n): bằng chứng đáng kể, nhiều bằng chứng thuyết phục

long-term retention /ˌlɔːŋˌtɝːm rɪˈten.ʃən/ (n): khả năng ghi nhớ lâu dài

principle /ˈprɪn.sə.pəl/ [B2] (n): nguyên tắc

apply to sb/sth /əˈplaɪ/ [B1] (v): áp dụng cho ai/cái gì

meta-analysis /ˌmet̬.ə.əˈnæl.ə.sɪs/ (n): phân tích tổng hợp

spread sth over time /spred/ (phr): phân bố/dàn trải cái gì theo thời gian

cram /kræm/ [C1] (v): học nhồi nhét, dồn kiến thức vào một thời gian ngắn

session /ˈseʃ.ən/ [B1] (n): buổi, phiên học/làm việc

deliberately /dɪˈlɪb.ɚ.ət.li/ [B2] (adv): một cách cố ý, có chủ đích

lie in sth /ˈlaɪ ɪn/ (phr v): nằm ở, bắt nguồn từ cái gì

take away sth /ˌteɪk əˈweɪ/ (phr v): lấy đi, làm mất đi cái gì

(reading) passage /ˈpæs.ɪdʒ/ [B1] (n): đoạn văn (đọc hiểu)

paradox /ˈper.ə.dɑːks/ [C1] (n): nghịch lý

tap /tæp/ [B2] (n): cú chạm, cú nhấn nhẹ

prompt /prɑːmpt/ (n): câu lệnh (cho AI)

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