Quite so, and there is data to prove it.
Every year, Uber publishes its Lost and Found Index. It is a snapshot of the most commonly forgotten items in its rides.
Over the last year, objects including mobile phones, bags, wallets and clothing topped the list of items left behind in Ubers across India. These were followed by utility items such water bottles, keys, and accessories such as spectacles and jewellery. Passengers also forgot unique things such as a ukulele instrument, a coin collection, prasad from temples and a hair trimmer. They also left behind important documents such as passports, bank and business papers.
Powered by insights and data, Uber’s Lost and Found Index aims to educate riders in a fun yet informative manner about in-app options available to them at the tap of a button, in case they lose or forget something in their Uber ride during a trip.
So which cities were the most forgetful?
Delhi took the title of the most forgetful city in the country for the second consecutive year, and Mumbai retained its second spot. Bengaluru reclaimed its third place from Hyderabad, which slipped to fourth as residents became more watchful about their belongings. Rounding off the top five most forgetful cities in the country is Pune.
Analysing the data, Uber was able to connect the trends. We are most likely to forget our belongings in an Uber on Saturdays.
Most riders tend to forget blue-coloured items the most in Ubers, followed by red and pink. So the next time you hop on to an Uber, try carrying items that are green or purple or yellow. You are less likely to leave it behind. In the US, red-coloured items are most commonly left behind. What gives?
Evenings make us most forgetful, with most items left behind around 7pm. Aren’t we all frazzled towards the end of our working days to remember what all we were carrying?
Apple device users were most forgetful during the year gone by. Android users rejoice! The most common item to be lost, anywhere, is a smartphone. A typical user may touch it 2,617 times every single day so it is highly surprisingly so many of these go missing.
The feeling of panic and stress associated with losing a mobile phone has become so common that is has been given its own name, nomophobia.
The festive days around Diwali were when people were most forgetful last year. Goddess Lakshmi grants us such bounty that we don’t mind leaving some behind for others. Like, in a cab.
So it all adds up. Across Ubers and Olas and trains and flights. At restaurants, in the gym.
The average person loses more than 3,000 items in their lifetime.
Forgetfulness is something that we’ve had to accept as a way of life. Just because you are forever losing things, doesn’t mean that you are losing your mind.
We keep saying that we live in the age of information overload. Forgetting serves us well. It tunes out useless information so we can focus on the relevant. Without it, neither anger at a slight nor the pain of grief would fade; feelings of love and attraction would not either, making it impossible to move on from relationships. Remembering build us, and forgetting chisels away the excess, shaping the way we see ourselves and our world. Maybe we really didn’t need what we left behind in the Uber.
Broadly speaking, there are two explanations for why we keep lose all this stuff – one scientific, the other psychoanalytic.
According to the scientific account, losing things represents a failure of recollection or a failure of attention: either we can’t retrieve a memory (of where we set down our wallet, say) or we didn’t encode one in the first place.
According to the psychoanalytic account, conversely, losing things represents a success. It is a deliberate sabotage of our rational mind by our subliminal desires. In ‘The Psychopathology of Everyday Life’, Freud describes “the unconscious dexterity with which an object is mislaid on account of hidden but powerful motives,” including “the low estimation in which the lost object is held, or a secret antipathy towards it or towards the person that it came from.”
No wonder losing things, even trivial things, can be so upsetting.
Regardless of what goes missing, loss puts us in our place; it confronts us with lack of order and loss of control and the fleeting nature of existence.
One of the characteristics of modern age is how much we need to remember. Passwords, birthdays, anniversaries, due dates for insurance payments and bills …
Andrew Budson, neurologist and author of ‘Why We Forget and How to Remember Better: The Science Behind Memory’, has a few tips on improving our memory.
“There’s nothing wrong with outsourcing your memory or using memory aids,” he says. “Anybody who wants to remember a shopping list or an appointment that’s coming up, write it down, put it in your phone or a planner; use reminders and calendars. I offload my memory as much as possible. I have all my passwords written down in a secure digital place. I use calendars, planners, and lists. In terms of trying to remember things better, day to day, I work at trying to be present and pay attention to what I’m doing and trying to multitask less”.
Aah, that last one is sage advice. As busy executives, many of us take pride in ‘multi-tasking’. Alas, it also sets us up for forgetting, simple because we are not paying attention to the many things we claim to be doing. It can be humbling to admit that we haven’t been attentive. It is also one of the keys to experiencing improvement.
Good luck on your next ride!
Kunal Sinha is a senior strategy and foresights executive based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He is the author of several books including The Future of India’s Rural Markets and Raw – Pervasive Creativity in Asia. He writes for MxMIndia every other Monday. His views here are personal.