LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. — The 21st century is full of revolutionary innovations that make life much easier. However, inventions such as artificial intelligence and short-form content have been shown to harm students’ minds. The newest generation is becoming known as the “dumb generation,” and they are doing nothing to change their reputation.

The biggest inventions shaping the industry and daily life for Generation Z, people born from 1997-2012, and Generation Alpha, people born from 2013-2025, are social media and AI. The most recent generations have grown up to be reliant on AI for automatic and quick answers for educational purposes. AI, accompanying short-form content on social media, has been proven to decrease students’ attention span and abstract thinking. 

“Since we’ve been standardizing and measuring cognitive development since the late 1800s, every generation has outperformed their parents and that’s exactly what we want. We want sharper kids,” said neuroscientist Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath in his address to Congress.

Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath studies human learning and shares his concerns about the changes in the cognitive development of children. Each generation after the next has risen in intelligence quotient (IQ) scores and has been more intelligent than the previous generation. This is known as the “Flynn Effect.” The average increase in these standardized IQ test scores was about 0.31 per year. Though it is controversial whether these studies can predict success in various domains, they show that human learning has progressed, slowly but surely, over time.

The reason for the “Flynn Effect” is that each generation has experienced longer hours of schooling than the prior generations. This is also true with Gen Z; however, it is the first generation not to show the average increase in cognitive development. The overall reason for this abnormal decline is believed to be due to the presence of screens and AI in classrooms, which began in the early 2010s.

“I use AI every day, it’s my best friend,” said Los Alamitos High School junior Sophie Long.

One of the few locations in the world taking serious action on this shocking discovery is Denmark. When Danes realized that students were slipping behind, they decided to limit, if not eliminate, screens and social media for students. Previously being accommodated with cell phones, computers and tablets, schools in Denmark have banished the usage of all screens and returned to physical textbooks and assignments.

“I think the biggest issue has been that we’ve noticed that a lot of the kids have trouble concentrating, so it’s pretty easy to swipe with three fingers over to a different screen and have a video game going, for example, in class,” said Copenhagen English teacher, Islam Dijab, in an Upworthy article.

Gen Z has experienced more advanced schooling than all previous generations, leaving students no excuse to not outperform their parents. Yet, according to human learning studies, IQ scores are declining and may continue to do so if no change is implemented for future generations.