Cognitive neuroscientist Jared Cooney Horvath has issued a stark warning: Gen Z is the first generation in modern history to show a decline in cognitive abilities compared to their predecessors. Horvath, a former teacher, attributes this concerning trend directly to the increasing integration and overuse of digital technology within educational settings.
A Reversal of Historical Trends
For over a century, each successive generation consistently outperformed the last on various measures of cognitive development, a phenomenon largely credited to advancements in schooling. However, Horvath points out that this positive trajectory has reversed with Gen Z. He asserts that this generation underperforms on virtually every cognitive metric, including basic attention, memory, literacy, numeracy, executive functioning, and even general IQ, despite having more years of schooling.
The 2010 Turning Point
According to Horvath, the critical shift occurred around 2010, coinciding with the widespread adoption of digital technology in classrooms. He highlights international data from 80 countries, which reveals a clear correlation: increased use of digital technology in education is linked to lower academic performance. Specifically, Horvath notes that students who use computers for approximately five hours per day in school for learning purposes score significantly lower than those who rarely or never engage with technology in the classroom.
This observation is not new; Horvath claims that decades of academic research, dating back to 1962, consistently show that when technology is introduced into education, learning outcomes tend to decrease.
"We have evolved biologically to learn from other human beings, not from screens. And screens circumvent that process," Horvath explained, suggesting the issue is biological rather than purely technological.
Redefining Education or Surrendering?
Horvath also criticized the apparent lowering of educational standards to accommodate digital habits. He cited changes in reading comprehension tests, such as those in the SAT, which have shifted from requiring students to analyze long passages to answering questions on numerous short sentences. "Rather than determining what do we want our children to do and gearing education towards that, we are redefining education to better suit the tool. That's not progress, that is surrender," he stated.
The neuroscientist emphasized that the problem extends beyond smartphones and social media. He cautioned that all screen-based devices, regardless of size, can negatively impact learning and, consequently, children's cognitive development. This perspective resonates with observations from individuals like entrepreneur Nikhil Kamath, who noted the dependency digital devices create in children and restricts his own son's screen time.