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The U.S. spent $30 billion to ditch textbooks for laptops and tablets: The result is the first generation less cognitively capable than their parents (fortune.com)
submitted 7 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 29 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (7 children)

I suspect that if Gen Z designed their own cognitive tests, their tests would determine that we older generations were less cognitively capable than them.

The reality is that every generation adapts in different ways to fit their own cognitive circumstances, and one generation’s metric is at best an imperfect match for another—“cognitive capacity” can’t be objectively measured.

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  • [+] 59 points 7 months ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (5 children)
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  • [–] 6 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    As a Gen z who managed to not be an idiot I'm unconvinced it's the technology when even in my elementary school years I was beginning to realize how shit the school system is. Technology probably doesn't make things better but it was failing me in elementary school when the best of the best was the massive brick of a computer Macs in the computer lab was all we had

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  • [+] 4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 child)
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  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago

    Personal anecdote here, so grain of salt.

    But I was born in the mid90s. My dad is a tech geek, so we had a personal computer with Windows 95 and I was playing Adiboo on it at 2-3 years old. Also had a Gameboy with Pokemon. Played CS/HL/DOD in the early 2000s. All before we were going to the computer lab at my school.

    So I've been entrenched in computers and tech my whole life. So I don't think screen time itself is bad, but we also did not have tech in the classroom (except for the old school throw projectors).

    So it probably doesn't help that the classroom nowadays is all tech while also the kid's home is all tech. It's a balancing act.

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  • [–] 4 points 7 months ago

    See also Goodhart's law "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure", which may not be completely relevant here, but is likely a factor (probably a lesser one than the systematic underfunding and other political meddling in US schools).

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