Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath testified before Congress that Gen Z is not as smart as previous generations when it comes to attention, memory, literacy, numeracy, executive function and general IQ so he says in a recent New York Post piece.

He blames phones. Horvath says “Humans are biologically programmed to learn from other humans and from deep study, not flipping through screens for bullet point summaries.”

I see good news in my college classes where young students are very aware of the burden of battling screen time.  They want to spend more time in the present.  Are disconnecting more.  Using less social media or deleting apps altogether.  They are very smart and they’ve gotten the message that life, if not learning, is best lived in the now with real people and social situations.

The very self-awareness Gen Z shows about screen damage is itself evidence of intact — even strengthened — executive function and metacognition, not cognitive decline.

Arianna Huffington noted how tech industry monetizes distractions when she spoke to Colby College students in 2016 and said “Your attention is the most valuable currency of the digital age.”

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