Link: https://fortune.com/2026/02/21/laptops-tablets-schools-gen-z-less-cognitively-capable-parents-first-time-cellphone-bans-standardized-test-scores/

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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.

The mistake was a bunch of people who learned how to use computers as adults thinking that the only way to learn how to use a computer is to do so from a young age, in non-vocational ways.

Doesn’t make sense, does it?

So who benefits from $30bn in spending on Laptops and Tablets? Oh Apple and Microsoft. Not students. Surprise surprise.

As with many of these articles there is a big caveat - Gen Z in the USA. It does not follow that this research applies across the world. It'd be interesting to see how other rich countries outcomes are different with their differing approaches to this. For example here in the UK I don't believe there has been a wholesale move to laptops/tablets for every student in schools. Technology is certainly used but it's not solely about students using laptops and tablets. Its things like smart wide boards, and the use of digital content to engage attention and so forth. Spending billions on laptops for all would be a scandal when school buildings need renewing for example.

I would hazard to suggest that the US education system is being corrupted in a similar way to other parts of the US state, with big expensive projects decided at state level by the Republicans and Democrats thanks to lobbying, benefiting big companies but not citizens. This is instead of money going to areas of proven benefit such as more teachers, school infrastructure renewal, or funding of homework clubs, after school activities, breakfast clubs or free school meals. Things proven to make a difference across the world but things that don't benefit big US corporations.

And lets be honest, if you wanted to give every student a laptop you wouldn't be going to Apple or Microsoft. You'd save money and go for generic hardware and a license free operating system like Linux. But that would be an anathema to both the Democrats and the Republicans, who have signed off huge spending on overpriced tech.

It's all part of the plan, create technological dependency. Why is Google so laser focused on making sure these school PCs are always Chromebooks?

Raise an entire generation that can't write, research, calculate, synthesize, without a Chromebook. If it breaks, they buy a new one, when they grow up they rely on always having one, and so on.

Yes, businesses want children indoctrinated into the products that make them money.

Also, businesses want job training to be done in schools at the expense of education. I’ve talked to many people that seriously think that college is supposed to be entry-level job training. That kind of thing was always part of what new hires learn in entry-level jobs.

My kids are given Chromebooks. The schools are getting them registered with Google as early as possible.

I was once told "we're not going to teach you what you need to know, just what employers want you to know". Lost all respect for that "teacher" in that moment, as well as the school.

This was not recently either, that kind of dumbification has been going on for decades.

in the classroom specifically though? did they control for screen time outside of the classroom in the study?

generation less cognitively capable than their parents

Once I have read the same complaint in a source from 120 years ago, and there they even stated that every generation has thought that about their youth since very long ago....

Well hopefully those planning curriculums learn from this. Until then, computers at school and books at home. Turning luddite home schooling is not gonna help

First generation not better, brighter, more adaptable than the prior generation. Fitting, given everything else.

I'm sure the systemic defunding and dismantling of the public education system across the United States at the hands of Republican lawmakers over the same timeframe has absolutely nothing to do with it.

An entry level laptop pays for itself if you use it to get textbooks for free after a certain amount of time. The question is can you do it legally? Probably not. So where is the cost savings supposed to be?

Right? It always confounds and amazes me when people discount this simple fact.

Education has been fucked over so hard in this country, repeatedly. They want people dumb.

Blame it on the technology though, because admitting that Republicans plan are ALWAYS terrible for anyone below the 1%, without exception, somehow is impossible.

lol, I mostly ditched textbooks in high school not to support technology, but because I was tired of carrying around huge books in my backpack, the bulk of which I wouldn't even need on a daily basis. Lo and behold, even 14 years ago, I could find pdf versions of most of my textbooks, some of which were offered officially from the publisher for free via the school.

The problems are the enshittification of the internet, the attention economy and the superb lack of American educational system, not technology itself. Almost every university in the world is filled with the sounds of clacking keys from laptops, this isn't 1984.

Citing Program for International Student Assessment data taken from 15-year-olds across the world and other standardized tests, Horvath noted not only dipping test scores, but also a stark correlation in scores and time spent on computers in school, such that more screen time was related to worse scores. He blamed students having unfettered access to technology that atrophied rather than bolstered learning capabilities. The introduction of the iPhone in 2007 also didn’t help.

“This is not a debate about rejecting technology,” Horvath wrote. “It is a question of aligning educational tools with how human learning actually works. Evidence indicates that indiscriminate digital expansion has weakened learning environments rather than strengthened them.”

...

Classroom technology usage has ballooned in recent years. A 2021 EdWeek Research Center poll of 846 teachers found 55% said they are spending one to four hours per day with educational tech. Another quarter reported using the digital tools five hours per day.

most schools offer textbooks digitally anyways. I never once was reprimanded for using pirated textbooks. If anything, teachers are just happy to know a student cares enough to learn. It's really the crooked publishers that are far to greedy to serve any educational purpose that profit from copyright enforcement.

I mean, are they wrong? Why else do people go into student loan debt if not to get a job?

So Google can begin tracking and advertising to them

They really need to ban phones for students in grade school.

"But, they need them for safety!"

How the hell did we ever get along without every kid having an internet connected computer in their pocket since forever before they were invented? No, they don't need them for "safety".

It's also happening in areas where education HASN'T been defended or dismantled. It's happening in areas that aren't Republican controlled too.

Fuck MAGA with a moldy pine tree but blaming this problem solely on them means it can't be solved because whatever is happening isn't being caused by them.

That’s what the parasite pedofile class wants they want ignorant feudal serfs

The text book industry inflated the cost of everything by making things huge, with mostly meaningless full color pictures everywhere. Go back 100 years and compare the size of a math book to present day. Math hasn't changed a whole lot but the size and weight of the books certainly has.

Which locations weren't impacted by the first trump administration's education department or no child left behind?

I never said it was solely on them, but saying that has no bearing on it is ridiculous as well.

We also had COVID which many/most schools had no fucking idea how to handle. There's basically an entire year of wasted education there.

Remote learning is a completely different beast. And digital social interaction is completely different than being physically at school with friends. Social interactions are a large part of learning as well.

I have a few college "textbooks" from the 1930's. They're small

Did you not have a locker?

I completely blame ChromeOS.

Even on AD snafu'd windows, the first thing we all did was figure out how to bypass any block and do what we wanted to.

Kids are growing up not knowing there are things you can do aside from accessing the internet and loading crappy webpages.

Not OP, but when I hear this argument, a lot of schools wouldn't let you go to your locker between all classes. That, or your classes were so far apart, you didn't have time to go even get to your locker between them. There were some days I could only get to my locker once.

Technology is part of it. For example, handwriting notes is proven to be better for information retention compared to typing.

Even people who experienced that world firsthand when they were in school can't imagine going back to that. You'll never convince people who don't remember those times.

There are even people writing 'software' who don't know that.

I don't think it's necessarily the text books that are the issue but rather the physical act of writing your own notes.

I think it's that now people type all their notes into a laptop rather than write it down.

I'm so fucking happy I'm not the only one who has noticed that.

jesus christ we're so fucked.

It's almost like the people drawing these conclusions from incomplete data are.... poorly educated?

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

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).

It’s called education. People become educated to be better and more productive workers with a strong understanding of research, critical thinking, individual vs team work, languages, cultural differences, etcetera.

Every job is very specific. The job training itself is supposed to happen at that job in some way. Doctors have residency. Lawyers do time as a clerk. Electricians have apprenticeships. Cops have 5 week training.

I'm sure the switch was a profit driven enterprise evey step of the way, so it worked perfectly, and additionally created more malleable servants.

Nah, don't buy it. Paper does not produce smart people via some magic, screen does not produce dumb people via some magic. This works in a different, but fairly simple way

I came here to say something similar. It's not merely tech that's to blame but the kind of tech we have today. Kids are being raised to be consumers of tech and tech services. They don't have basic fundamentals that millenials had to learn to access porn on dialup.

Schools are meant to teach kids how to think critically, along with basic facts.

Giving them laptops doesn’t teach that part unless you go out of your way for it.

Problem is you need a degree to get hired

The problem isn't the technology, but the implementation.

The USA should have had a national digital textbook initiative, where free textbooks are developed and digitally distributed to all schools of every educational level. Each textbook can have modules and problem generators, designed to make it easy for teachers to assemble a custom curriculum for their class, to assign problems, and to quickly have generic quizzes graded.

The biggest problem with such a program would be things like essays, culture, and history, since many bad actors would want to press their beliefs onto students. Still, things like dates, locations, and people involved with events can be standardized. Maybe teachers can rate educational modules, to help keep bad material from being adopted by most teachers?

Comparing learning methods and then associating their benefits with the technology feels… fallacious.

For this reason I actually recommend a cheap Android tablet for digital note taking since it is well worth the price. I used to carry paper with me, but having the ability to quickly review notes across several classes (lectures and books) is a game changer. Need to know what was discussed last week? What you took on a topic? It’s very cumbersome with paper.

I feel like ‘technology’ is different when you actually own the tech you’re given. When you can do things with it. Not when it’s a digital casino in your pocket controlled by big corporations.

Once you had the phone line to yourself it was easy, just dial out and open cracked limewire or bearshare, then simply click the first horny thing you see, like:

-br1tney_nud3s_14.4k friendly-.exe -filesize 66kb

Yeah. I had a locker next to the school’s music room in the farthest corner once. Fun year.