Wanna remember something? Write it down.
"...for this discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learner's souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves."
--Plato in MW, pg 362
In Plato's Phaedrus, he begins with a long description concerning the creation of the alphabet through Socrates' explanation. It's really hard to believe that anyone would honestly think that the alphabet would do more harm than good. To say that it will harm someone's ability to use their memory seems like an extravagant stretch in my opinion. Personally, when I need to memorize something, I write it down...over and over...and over again. It helps to visualize what I'm trying to memorize. Even though the alphabet is just a bunch of characters, it gives a physicality to oral speech. How can anyone say that writing things down doesn't help with memorization? Look at college students. How are we supposed to remember everything we learn in class if we don't take detailed notes? Sure there are those few people in the world who are lucky enough to have a photographic memory, but what about the rest of us? We need something to help us retain all that information. Instead of saying that writing ruins our memories, we should argue that it actually improves it because it gives us a little peace at mind knowing that we have it written down somewhere so if we do happen to forget, we have somewhere to look back to remember.
Of course, then you have to remember where you put the piece of paper.