Is It Gen Z’s Fault They’re Dumber Than Their Parents?

There is a common thought from an older generation to a younger one along the lines of “I want you to be better than me.” It is almost cliche how many different iterations of that phrase are told by parents to their children, or any elder speaking to a member of the next generation.

While it is a nice sentiment, it has also been a clear, data-based trend since we started recording academic performance in the mid-20th century. From then onwards, every generation has outperformed the previous in all academic metrics: literacy, reading comprehension, IQ tests, etc.

That is, until Gen Z came along. I say this as a founding member of this generation, born at the very start (January 1997), and I myself feel the constant struggle of not letting quick dopamine hits and social media algorithms steal my attention and focus. While smartphone use is certainly a factor in all this, Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath addressed Congress with his findings specifically about classroom-based digital learning technology. Here is an excerpt:

“Over the past two decades, the cognitive development of children across much of the developed world has stalled and, in many domains, reversed. Literacy, numeracy, attention, and higher-order reasoning have declined despite increased school attendance and expanded public investment.

“One major structural change distinguishes today’s classrooms from those of prior generations: the rapid and largely unregulated expansion of educational technology (EdTech). Digital devices now occupy a significant share of instructional time, assessment, homework, and student attention.

“The available evidence (from international assessments, large-scale academic studies, and meta-analyses) shows that increased classroom screen exposure is generally associated with weaker learning outcomes, not stronger ones.”

Multiple studies have been completed on this subject and the data is compelling, but that’s not the real question I am posing to you. What I want to discuss is that is this even Gen Z’s fault? Moreover, have the previous, “smarter” generations experienced a cognitive decline as well due to digital technology?

Millennials, Gen X, Baby Boomers, etc all have their scores posted from their days in school long ago, but I’d be very curious to see how those scores hold up after they’ve been exposed to the same digital technology and social media as Gen Z. Have they experienced a cognitive decline themselves after decades of internet use?

This is a study I’d love for people more knowledgable and better trained than myself to perform. It just takes one glance at a baby boomer’s Facebook page to make you wonder about the negative effects that social media scrolling has on their mental faculties as well.

All of this is to say that ordinary, every day people aren’t to blame nearly as much as the corporations that sell us these devices are, as well as the tech companies that specifically design their apps to be as addicting and attention-grabbing as possible.

Especially with people leaning on AI companions like ChatGPT more and more for advice, therapy, and factual information (often incorrect), it is hard not to have a bleak outlook on the future for human intellect. I believe only through intentional and careful consumption can we fight this erosion of attention spans and intelligence. Read a book instead of scrolling Instagram. Call your dad instead of going on Tik Tok. Take a walk or ride a god damn pogo stick, we aren’t meant to be sedentary and plugged in like computers.