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As a society, we chose to only teach ONE FUCKING GENERATION how to use technology and then went "well, young people 'just understand' technology, we don't need to teach it anymore" and then somehow decided to just give all the kids a fucking tablet or laptop and assume they would LEARN THROUGH OSMOSIS I GUESS? Meanwhile we are defunding education across the country to absolutely shameful lows. (yes, I'm focused on the USA - I doubt "Cooney Horvath" is basing this broad generalization meant to scare people into buying his books on a study of ALL CHILDREN ALL OVER THE WORLD) AND THEN we let tech-bro-oligarchs decide EVERYTHING related to tech for two entire fucking decades and are just SHOCKED they did the thing that was best for profits, not the children (whose lives it was actively ruining for profit).

BUT YES, JARED HORNY CORVATH, your astute observations PROVE it was the fault of the LAPTOP that the next generations are "INHERANTLY DUMBER" (feels like a dog whistle, I dunno for what - but it's trying to justify something, I can feel it in my bones).

In 2002, Maine became the first state to implement a statewide laptop program to some grade levels. Then-governor Angus King saw the program as a way to put the internet at the fingertips of more children, who would be able to immerse themselves in information.

As the great Douglas Adams once wrote: "This has generally been considered a bad idea."

2002 though. I sympathize. The internet was different and more human. He must've thought they were giving kids freedom to access NatGeo and Wikipedia.

...We were more optimistic about the internet then.

...But they failed to take into account that they were releasing children into an unregulated world of predatory marketer barons making millions hand-over-fist by hijacking attention.

and welcome to 'short attention span theater"

Students aren't being disadvantaged by the availability or even the reliance on technology.

They're being disadvantaged by not being taught (or in most cases even allowed) to interact with said technology in challenging and enlightening ways.

Would expect nothing better than such jumping to shallow conclusions from the chronically out of touch rag Fortune, though.

LOL what on earth if FORTUNE of all places doing publishing an article on this?

I have a degree in computer engineering. I have been coding since the 80’s.

I learn better with pencil and paper. Most people do. Schools need to go back to that. Have computer labs but don’t do everything on computers all damn day.

I don't think it's tablets and laptops that caused the decline as much as what they grant access to. The conspiratorial side to me is dying to believe that the massive Gen AI push by the government and businesses is not only about the money, but also about producing a dumber generation.

I make a comment saying the title here, like a week ago, and its controversial.

I say 'if you don't understand this that's because you're not familiar with current stats and papers'.

Look.

Everybody is scrambling to actually explain the causal mechanism(s).

... The observed effect though, is so broad and obvious and undeniable, that that's why everyone is scrambling to try and explain it.

Personally, my inclination is that for-profit, advertisement-oriented social media apps are the 'cigarettes' of the digital age... because they are literally precision designed to hijack your attention, cause addiction via hijacking your dopamine/reward neurochemistry, prey on and exploit all your innate/subconscious insecurities, and they reward and amplify convenience, outrage and excess.

But that's just a hypothesis. Again, what's undeniable is that... we have, broadly, peaked.

Unless of course we can figure out how to reverse that, and then actually implement whatever needs to be done, to actually reverse it.

i can’t imagine that forcing kids to go to school during a pandemic where a disease spread whose long-term effects include cognitive impairment had a good impact either

The dark ages didn't begin because the library of Alexandria fell, but because it was allowed to fall.

This is fundamentally our fault

Mostly posting this because holy shit what a jump to blame schools distributing laptops being the cause and not psychologically addictive social media algorithms having a total domination of their attention

Definitely nothing to do with the fact that schools giving out laptops disproportionately benefits less wealthier families

So the interesting line for me, that many comments obviously didn't read, is:

Horvath noted not only dipping test scores, but also a stark correlation in scores and time spent on computers in school

So there clearly is something up with computers in school. But this doesn't exclude the possibility that the kids who are getting their brains fucked by addictive algorithms are then more likely to fuck about on school computers. This line:

Horvath blamed this tendency to get off-track as a key contributor to technology hindering learning.

Suggests it's not "tech" but "distractions enabled by tech" which is having the effect, i.e. if school laptops and tablets were locked down you wouldn't see as much of an effect.