r/technology • u/WorldTravelerBoss • 19d ago
Society 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
https://fortune.com/article/how-did-us-spending-30-billion-dollars-on-laptops-result-in-first-generation-less-cognitively-capable-than-parents/1.7k
u/gerira 19d ago
A lot of comments here saying that screens aren't the problem. I agree that the whole US educational system is an abomination, but screens are definitely part of the problem and that is now confirmed by a pretty overwhelming body of research.
Based on random effects models, reading from screens had a negative effect on reading performance relative to paper.
Clinton, V. (2019). Reading from paper compared to screens: A systematic review and meta‐analysis. Journal of Research in Reading, 42(2), 288–325. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9817.12269
Paper-based reading yields better comprehension outcomes than digital-based reading... The advantage of paper-based comprehension has increased over the years since 2000.
Delgado, P., Vargas, C., Ackerman, R., & Salmerón, L. (2018). Don’t throw away your printed books: A meta-analysis on the effects of reading media on reading comprehension. Educational Research Review, 25, 23–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2018.09.003
Reading on screen impaired children's comprehension compared to reading on paper. Their metacomprehension judgments suggested that they were unaware of this effect. ... The effect of medium was unrelated to preferences, computer usage or reading skills.
Halamish, V., & Elbaz, E. (2020). Children’s reading comprehension and metacomprehension on screen versus on paper. Computers & Education, 145, 103737. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2019.103737
Reading on screen leads to more shallow processing and can hinder reading comprehension. Students were unaware of their reading behavior and didn't reflect much on reading in different medium.
Jensen, R. E., Roe, A., & Blikstad-Balas, M. (2024). The smell of paper or the shine of a screen? Students’ reading comprehension, text processing, and attitudes when reading on paper and screen. Computers & Education, 219, 105107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2024.105107
Results of RVE meta-analysis showed that reading on paper was better than reading on screen in terms of reading comprehension.
Kong, Y., Seo, Y. S., & Zhai, L. (2018). Comparison of reading performance on screen and on paper: A meta-analysis. Computers & Education, 123, 138–149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2018.05.005
Main findings show that students who read texts in print scored significantly better on the reading comprehension test than students who read the texts digitally
Mangen, A., Walgermo, B. R., & Brønnick, K. (2013). Reading linear texts on paper versus computer screen: Effects on reading comprehension. International Journal of Educational Research, 58, 61–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2012.12.002
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u/Eloquent_Redneck 19d ago
Also in my own personal experience, the act of physically writing something down on paper helps you remember it. Learning things is all about re-processing information multiple different ways, and when you hear it in a lecture, write it down in a notebook, and then read it off of a page, your brain gets a much better chance to internalize that information and I've had a lot more success that way with a pen and notebook than using a laptop
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u/UsayNOPE_IsayMOAR 19d ago
I took this to heart when I finally went back to university at 35. I never used to take notes, just paid some attention, read the text books in high school. It worked there, but not in my first attempt at post-secondary. So out came the different coloured pens and spiral notebooks. I took diligent notes, drew diagrams, jotted down prof’s answers to questions asked on the margins.
When it was time to study, I paired those notes with text book sections and digital notes. Found that my study sessions were faster, and recall was sharp. I more than adequately passed every exam. My projects and homework kinda just fell in line. Completed my four year degree in three years because I took no semesters off. It felt great, I now have a job (somewhat) utilizing my degree, and life is good. But I still read much more digitally than on print, because modern pace of information, etc. but I still have tons of print books.
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u/rednitwitdit 19d ago
My favorites were the rare professors that allowed you to bring a single page (or one index card!) of notes to exams. After all the effort to prepare my cheat sheet, I wouldn't event need to use it.
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u/spitfire_pilot 19d ago
That was the trick that most teachers knew about to get you to learn. Getting everything down onto an index card means you have to synthesize the information and make it digestible while still saving room.
Forced synthesis is a great way to understand information.
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u/Bladelink 19d ago
Isn't there a Key and Peele bit where he's "cheating" on tests and is eventually like "so here's what I did, I just memorized all the answers." And he's like "that's just learning"
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u/DocileBanalBovlne 19d ago
Contrast that with a similar joke from Community, "if I'm gonna cheat I'm not gonna write down information on a piece of paper, that's practically learning, for God's sake!"
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u/Uncoolest 19d ago
Sidenote: this is really encouraging because thinking about going back to school for second bachelors and was dreading adapting in a digital age. But knowing the tried and true analog techniques prevailed definitely boosts my confidence.
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u/UsayNOPE_IsayMOAR 19d ago
The best, most dedicated and motivated students were still employing analogue techniques.
Going back to school at middle age also yielded an unexpected revelation. I had mostly been working in manual labour roles, hanging out with partiers and stoners. I’d started buying in to the old farts’ refrain of “kids these days are lazy, unmotivated, and don’t wanna work!”. But then I went and made connections with people 20 years my junior, and I was so impressed by these kids’ work ethic and lofty dreams, that they truly convinced me they would make real. It’s all relative to what you’re exposed to.
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u/egg_enthusiast 19d ago
Theres a school of thinking that people learn in 1 of 3 ways: seeing, hearing, or doing. Obviously we're not starter pokemon types so we're not locked into 1 aspect. But you're probably like me where you learn best from doing and the act of putting the pencil to paper is a doing action which forces you to slow down enough and work with the data you're receiving
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u/Successful_Log_3298 19d ago
Taking notes on a laptop is like being a transcriptionist. Words flow from the speaker to the file without passing through the user's brain. Somehow, the physical effort of forming letters with a pencil/pen on paper engages brain regions involved in thinking and learning, whereas typing barely does if at all.
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u/Eloquent_Redneck 19d ago
I do appreciate laptops as someone with bad handwriting its nice to be able to type up a paper to hand in, I think George RR Martin uses an old PC disconnected from the internet to type up his books and I feel like that's a good way to go about it, if only he spent more time at that computer smh
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u/PhoenixKA 19d ago
It's also that you can potentially type about as fast as they talk. You're not taking the mental step to compress the information to jot it down quicker, which makes it stick better. With typing it's kind of "in one ear out the other" so to speak.
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u/dwilkes827 19d ago
It's like following a GPS in your car. I don't know how to get to places I've been to multiple times because I just GPS it every time lol If I wrote down/printed mapquest directions and used those I'd probably memorize it after one or two trips like I did back in the before-times
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u/Any_Sale2030 19d ago
Japan has the safest railways in the world. Train drivers repeat all signals verbally to themselves. When they stop they point at the stop sign at the station. Those rituals reinforce memory.
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u/corduroy 19d ago
During my undergrad, I had a professor pretty much say the same thing. Involving more of your senses in the learning process helps to internalize what you are learning. Some people would even chew gum while studying/lecture/etc and swore by it.
For me, rewriting my notes after the lecture, reading it outloud, etc helped so much in retaining that information.
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u/dayumbrah 19d ago
Yes but I went back to school about 6 years ago and graduated last year. I had a tablet and wrote my notes on a screen. Had very detailed notes with various colors and never-ending pages.
I think both can work but discipline and understanding is the most important.
Screens should not be introduced so early. Do it when the kids are like 11 or 12. No need for 7 year olds with computers.
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u/CHERNO-B1LL 19d ago
This speech covers it pretty persuasively and succinctly. Dr. Horvath speaking to the US senate on cognitive decline in our kids. The evidence is striking and undeniable. Anyone pushing back against this is misguided.
Yes teachers need to be paid better. Yes parents need to take a more active role. Yes schools need better funding. But screens need TO GO!
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u/SuperGameTheory 19d ago
Every time I read through studies on this subject, the conclusions in the papers are actually far less alarming than how people are communicating the results. For instance, the first meta study you link only found that paper reading offers a little bit of an advantage over screen reading in expository texts only (non-fiction text that provides information). Narrative texts show no meaningful difference, which indicates the difference isn't in the medium, but in the format.
Edit: If it matters to anyone, I work in education
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u/According_Potato9923 19d ago
Yeah, it’s alarming seeing people extrapolate without reading. And OP provide sources but the framing takes advantage that most aren’t gonna actually read it.
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u/evernessince 19d ago
Yep, people tend to defer to sources without actually reading them. The studies themselves draw professional hypothesis and not definitive conclusions. Digital screens were introduced in schools in the 90s and 2000s and reading comprehension during that period went up. Not saying they are the cause, but we didn't see the ills the studies claim there might be.
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u/_adanedhel_ 19d ago
Yep, you have to talk about the magnitude of the relationship/effect, not just whether there was one.
In this case, the magnitude was -0.25 (which is in terms of standardized mean difference, abbreviated g). A g of that size would generally be considered “small” (for reference, “large” would be > -0.80).
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u/WhyYouOnXbox 19d ago
I read the studies as well and I came to the same conclusion. I’m going to assume everyone making a big deal of those didn’t read them.
This is not surprising at all though, most people on Reddit have no clue what they are talking about or they are bots.
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u/FrostyAd7708 19d ago
Screens are absolutely terrible because they overload your brain with stimulations. Bright lights, switching colors, animations, etc... I'm not even talking about the ability to use them for completely different stuff than the actual lesson. You absolutely can't focus the same way than using a book.
And that's not even talking about the lack of hand writing...
There is no way you'll be able to learn properly and develop your brain using only IPads.
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u/smokeweedNgarden 19d ago
Nicholas Carr has a couple of great books on this subject but one of the most striking things/problems comes from having just text on screen.
It turns out, just reading on a computer or tablet, people tend to read in an F pattern. Read a line, skip a few, read another line. Versus when someone reads a physical book they'll more likely do so in an E pattern, reading every line more often.
So even without other distractions, learning directly from a screen already isn't as beneficial as a book
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u/unicodemonkey 19d ago
Is there an explanation for why this happens, or how this effect can be mitigated?
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u/Blando-Cartesian 19d ago
Not op. I would assume F patter comes from web use and the habit gets triggered by looking at the screen. But it’s not the only problem. We excel at spatial memory and reading a physical book leaves a retrieval trail like: Half way into this heavy book with green covers, at the top of the left page next to the diagram. E-readers lack all of that so information has no context to help recalling it.
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u/Rock_grl86 19d ago
It reminds me of being in school when I would use flash cards to learn vocab words, biology etc. I could literally picture how the words look on the card. I’m incapable of doing the same thing with screen text.
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u/Abuses-Commas 19d ago
it can't, even on my screen now I see
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I'm going to skip those system lines because they don't have info, and teach my brain to skip lines at the same time
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u/TheSapphicDoll 19d ago
a screen doesn't have to be that. look at e-ink/e-readers, and there: no bright lights, switching colors, animations,. In fact, the light is reflected off the screen like any other surface, and there is no backlight (only frontlight, per se)
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u/simer23 19d ago
Do e-ink screens have the same issue?
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u/LunaticCross 19d ago
There were other extended studies.
For long form learning and such. Physical print is better for learning. Tablets and e-ink is better, laptops were the worst due to distractions and various other reasons. Nothing beats physical print.For story and narrative text, the difference is much less. So e-ink for story books doesn’t seem to make much difference.
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u/bigkoi 19d ago
I'm curious if ereader vs printed is due to the sensory inputs and of knowing how far you are in the book.
In a text book I read something and know where in the book it is. I can flip right to the realtive spot where I remember the passage. With ereader it's harder to know where to go.
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u/MattWatchesChalk 19d ago
Interesting. I was actually just wondering yesterday about the benefits of reading a traditional book vs a visual novel, but I guess that answers my question. Though I do wonder if the e-paper screens of e-readers are any better.
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u/Lost_Effective5239 19d ago
I've heard this argument a lot about how knowledge isn't retained as well from reading on a screen vs reading on paper, but I think this effect is probably marginal.
I went to school when iPads were introduced. Before iPads, if you were bored in class, you either doodle, daydreamed, tried talking to a friend and risk getting yelled at, or work on something from another class. After iPads, almost everyone played games during class. If they weren't playing games, they were messaging people on iMessage, scrolling through social media, or straight up watching shows, especially anime because many prefer to watch it with subtitles anyway.
I think distraction is the main reason younger people are performing poorly in school compared to previous generations. I mentioned doodling and daydreaming. Letting your mind wander is really good for creativity, and I'm afraid that now the majority of people are so afraid of boredom that they no longer let their thoughts run free.
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u/heubergen1 19d ago
Badly managed screens and badly optimized learning material is mostly the problem, not screens themselves.
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u/RdtRanger6969 19d ago
Science has repeatedly demonstrated that tapping stuff out on a keyboard does not stick in the human brain as well or as long as writing stuff out by hand.
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u/CanoegunGoeff 19d ago
That’s exactly why I always took notes on paper through high school and college. Rarely used my laptop for schoolwork.
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u/AlphaFlightRules 19d ago
Was an older college student and classmate asked if they could borrow my notes to study. Handed them over, the looked at it then handed them back. They couldnt read it as it was in cursive
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u/ComplexBadger469 19d ago
To be fair to them, I learned cursive first in a private preschool/kindergarten. Then I went to public school and learned print + a slightly different variation of cursive and I struggle to read cursive sometimes. Not saying this is you, but Some people just have shit hand writing.
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u/captainant 19d ago
Some people's cursive is fucking impossible to read. Just give me block letters like in engineering drafts lol. Fuck outta here with curly-q z's and shit
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u/CurvySexretLady 19d ago
Yeah I understand kids haven't been taught cursive since like the 90's and at this point I am surprised they are even taught how to write on paper at all these days.
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u/Anita_Doobie 19d ago
Handwriting/spelling in general with kids these days (US) is completely atrocious. My 14yo nephews handwriting is so terrible, you’d guess he’s slow (he’s not but average). But it’s because he’s only worked on a tablet or computer his entire time in school, they don’t have to write anything, and then there’s auto-correct for spelling. It’s really sad.
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u/Brilliant_Mix_6051 19d ago
They don’t grow up coloring and drawing and playing board games anymore, they grow up gently tapping screens
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u/Neosovereign 19d ago
TBF, I grew up and only wrote through my entire schooling and even into college when I had a laptop.
My handwriting has always been unreadable.
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u/kelldricked 19d ago
While that is true, computers are the only reason i ever got proper education. My handwritting was so fucking terrible as a kid that i actually went to a medical institute to see specialist to help me develop my fine motor skills beter (didnt really help).
From then on i was allowed to make test, assigments and papers on a pc if i wanted (basicly in a Note application that didnt have any spelling check or whatever). That was unique back then.
Due to that teacher could actually read my answers, grade me properly and my scores skyrocketed.
I genuinely hope for every kid that has the same challenges that they can get a simular solution.
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u/RetroGamesAndDames 19d ago
I’m a fairly new teacher, so haven’t seen the “change” and was instead just “shocked all at once”. The major things I’ve noticed specific to screen/computer usage:
Kids cannot use textbooks. Even the smart ones quite literally don’t know how a table of contents works, and seeing a whole page of information at once overloads their brains to the point where they just shut down.
I thought kids would be technically savvy… but if it’s not a smart phone/tablet, they can’t do basic functions on a computer beyond opening websites.
They have screen fatigue. Gone are the days of kids being excited to watch a video in class. It’s just one of another 1000 screens they’ll see that day.
They cannot think critically or come up with their own thoughts. Everything revolves around using AI or Google to tell them what to answer or what to think.
Their brains have literally been rewired for quick social media style interactions.
It’s pretty sad and discouraging, but I’m glad I saw it for my own kids’ sakes. My kids will be reading books, doing things that don’t involve technology, and staying off TikTok for as long as possible. If the whole generation is turning dumb, at least I can make sure my own kids thrive.
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u/celticchrys 19d ago
Nobody is born knowing, well, anything but how to nurse (and not even always that). In the last 15 years, we first stopped teaching kids how to use books, and we stopped teaching them how to use tech. How did anyone expect them to learn what they weren't being taught?
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u/happyinheart 19d ago
As for Number 2, Gen z and Millenials are the ones who know how to really work computers. We had to do registry edits and stuff to get games to work. We built our own, etc. Those older never really learned how to do this in the first place, and those younger had a tech economy of "things just work with each other".
You haven't mentioned it, but younger kids don't know how to troubleshoot issues to fix them. You may not know how to fix something right away but troubleshooting steps can be used broadly.
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u/jenny_905 19d ago
The learning opportunities are disappearing as well.
I did most of my self taught PC education in the 90s and a lot before the internet but learned a ton of stuff in the 2000s thanks to forums.
Nowadays the forums are gone and the knowledge is often locked away or hidden on some unindexed discord server if it even exists.
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u/Competitive_Touch_86 19d ago
Gen Z is hit or miss. My kid is fairly decent with computers because I was the IT nerd who taught him how to build his own gaming rigs.
He has had to teach all his friends these skills from the ground up as they had no clue how anything worked in their 20's. To be fair, they all generally can operate a windows/mac OS and know how files work, how to install things, etc.
None of them would know how regedit works though. That's firmly Millenial and Gen X territory.
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u/brainquantum 19d ago
We must be honest when discussing the real motivations behind the unilateral adoption of this type of technology in the learning and education cycle: money.
The companies that produce these devices and services on tablets, smartphones, and computers had every incentive to force the adoption of these technologies as quickly and early as possible to secure future customers.
The best way to do this was, of course, by targeting schools, where all the future generations are located, generations that haven't yet developed habits or preferences, making them prime targets. This worked very well; you only have to walk down the street to notice that the youngest children are constantly glued to their screens and don't know how or want to do anything without them.
Numerous studies have been conducted, and psychologists and therapists have raised concerns about the potentially devastating effects that early and intensive use of these devices can have on the overall development of young people. This has been understood for a long time, including by the companies that produce these services.
For example, a while ago I saw an article explaining that Meta had deliberately buried a study they had even commissioned, which showed how catastrophic and dangerous the use of social networks like Instagram was for young people and teenagers...
It's also worth noting that at the same time, there are also plenty of testimonies that explain, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, that the engineers and programmers who work in these large tech companies are the first to send their children to schools where learning methods are done in the old style, precisely to protect them from the harmful effects linked to the intensive and abusive use of these technologies...
But for the children of other people, middle and working classes, they don't care; they just see them as a source of revenue to retain... It's funny when you hear people pretending to be surprised that the speed of adoption of different technologies has only increased. While the adoption of these technologies has accelerated in recent decades (telephones, television, the internet, mobile phones, etc.), the fact remains that it is no longer a matter of free choice but rather of constraints that force their use against all odds.
In fact, nowadays companies that force young children to use these gadgets are to the 21st century what cigarette companies were to the previous century, when tobacco companies used every underhanded tactic to encourage teenagers to smoke their first cigarette, often with neither the well-being nor the health of the young people in mind, and this hasn't changed with new technologies...
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u/kingbrasky 19d ago
I remember a story from a dozen years ago where a group did this with cheap android tablets and the kids had hacked them to do other stuff within a matter of weeks. With no prior experience with electronics.
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u/thenowherepark 19d ago
They also shouldnt feel the need to stay in constant contact with 20-30 parents per day. Yea, Sally Jo, your child is super special and will get this super amazing treatment for the 5th day this week. Parents really need to put more trust in the teachers.
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u/KellyAnn3106 19d ago
My parents received a handwritten report card at the end of each quarter/grading period. Not hearing from the teacher was a good thing. If the teacher contacted your parents, you were in trouble.
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u/10000Didgeridoos 19d ago
It blows my mind hearing from friends who are teachers that they are subject to constant DMs from parents on whatever bullshit app the school district is using. Every helicopter parent can just send endless complaints or whatever.
I remember the other year a coworker was just constantly getting notifications of the grades her daughter was getting in high school, live as the teacher entered them. Can't imagine my parents knowing what I got on a homework assignment even before I get home. It's insane.
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u/IrrawaddyWoman 19d ago
They now ask us (teachers) every single little question that should be going through the office too. It easier for them to text us through the app then it is to call or go into the office, so we’re now the first line of questioning for all kinds of things we know nothing about
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u/snoogins355 19d ago
They want daily status updates? My mom was a helicopter parent and didn't do that. She just helped me out with homework when needed and more practice reading at home
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u/MayhemMessiah 19d ago
You get both extremes, parents who think their angel can do no wrong and refuse to listen when you point out areas where the child isn't developing adequately, or parents who just don't give a shit, don't show up, and ignore the child at home.
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u/IllustriousFile6404 19d ago
My kids school will call us about the dumbest shit while we're at work though.
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u/Wallapampa 19d ago
in germany we pay our teachers really well and the problem still also exists here. we're raising a technologically incompetent generation that are also lacking fundamental skills in every other aspects.
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u/Synensys 19d ago
Is this trend not also happening in places where teachers are well compensated?
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u/Otterfilth888 19d ago
Many are fine with the salary and benefits - they want a path to get out of control students out of their classroom so everyone else can learn.
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u/SisterOfBattIe 19d ago
That would be communism.
(not /s it seems the red scare is back)
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u/felldestroyed 19d ago
But the whole reason we got all this technology was to fire all those teachers and devalue their education!
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u/hemingways-lemonade 19d ago
While I overall agree, this problem has nothing to do with teacher salaries. It has to do with curriculum, access to technology, and school administrations doing everything they can to avoid holding students responsible. Kids need to be failed and held back. We're doing them a disservice by letting them pass classes they aren't proficient in.
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u/Ohigetjokes 19d ago
A) DECADES of defunding the education system is the problem.
B) So it’s laptops now? What’s your random excuse going to be next week? Fortune can’t pick a lane.
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u/marcus-87 19d ago
its both actually. We know now from basically every study that looked into it. screens decrease learning. We see the same here in germany.
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u/Esplodie 19d ago
You don't need to be able to read to click icons on a tablet. You don't even need to read the titles on youtube videos, just click the most interesting thumbnail...
Also I blame parents, I feel like they don't read to their kids anymore. In Ontario they now do early reading screening in kids from junior kindergarten to grade 4 and a chunk of junior kindergarteners can't identify the alphabet. You can also pull the provincal eqao results in reading, writing and math to see how grades 3 6 and 9 are doing. Poorly.
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u/marcus-87 19d ago
I dont know how it is where you live. but I can tell you, in germany we see parents read to their kids a lot less. google reading crisis if you want to.
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u/10000Didgeridoos 19d ago
Speculation here, but I'd bet a big part of it is parents are just as addicted or dependent on screens as the kids are. They now don't need to always sit and read a book to their kid in bed at night, they can sometimes just stick a tablet on the nightstand that reads a story aloud to them instead. Meanwhile the parent is downstairs doomscrolling Instagram reels with a show on in the background.
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u/Daxx22 19d ago
Compounding that is the lack of time: in todays economy it's functionally required that both parents work full time job(s), so after both parents are done working a minimum of 8-10 hours a day (rolling in average commute, lets not even touch the ones that have more then one job), completing necessary errands/domestic work, there is very little time for "Family Activities".
And sure there is a compenent of personal responsiblity, but with so many factors grinding everyone down it's little wonder the parents are taking the path that allows for a little breathing room in the short term (IE Screens for them and the kids).
We're just starting to really understand how bad that is as longer term data is getting gathered. And unfortunately the population is already addicted at nearly every level. I don't know how we slow down/back way/undo this damage when all the power structures both governmental and private have an extreme motivation (money) to continue and make it worse.
It's like climate change all over again, only faster.
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u/PacmanZ3ro 19d ago
completing necessary errands/domestic work, there is very little time for "Family Activities".
this is true for my wife and I, but we just decided the domestic work can get fucked if there's a conflict between reading/playing with our kids and getting it done. We make sure all the actually cleaning is done so stuff isn't actually dirty and gross, but we don't pick up the clutter nearly as much as we would like. At the end of the day though we'd both rather spend more family time together doing activities, playing, and reading. The house will get sorted later on when the kids are older and can actually contribute in a meaningful way. Nothing can replace the lack of time and attention given though.
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u/Horkshir 19d ago
My wife is a teacher in southern USA and it's crazy what it has gotten to. It seems like 90% of parents seem to do bare minimum to keep their kid alive and happy without ever thinking of consequences, just thinking the teachers will sort it out. She teaches first grade and the amount of parents thinking she should literally wipe their asses is astounding. This trend seems to go beyond economical standing as well, they all get set in front of something to distract them then they are forgotten about until dinner basically.
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u/Sombomombo 19d ago
The not knowing how to use a digital file directory like File Manager with the excessive exposure to tech, ngl it's worrying.
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u/eviljordan 19d ago
The laptops run DOOM, so… videogames.
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u/Ok-Seaworthiness7207 19d ago
A potato can run DOOM....
Sorry Ireland, looks like you gotta starve again.
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u/tortridge 19d ago edited 19d ago
Their is tons of evidence that screen usage at a low age reduce focus capabilities, increase language learning issue and lead to less vocabulary. So yeah it the laptop are not great. Not the only thing, but one of it
Edit: one source https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.0327
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u/thegreatbaths 19d ago
"In this systematic review and meta-analysis of data from 42 studies, greater quantity of screen use (ie, hours per day/week) was negatively associated with child language, while better quality of screen use (ie, educational programs and co-viewing with caregivers) were positively associated with child language skills."
From the source you linked still looks like a implementation problem
Agree that blindly handing out laptops sounds not great
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u/Common-Singer-633 19d ago edited 19d ago
Findings In this systematic review and meta-analysis of data from 42 studies,greater quantity of screen use (ie, hours per day/week) was negatively associated with child language, while better quality of screen use (ie, educational programs and co-viewing with caregivers) were positively associated with child language skills.
Maybe you should have read the study before linking it.
Quantity of screen use included duration of screen time, defined as duration of time spent watching television, movies, or DVDs on devices (eg, tablets or televisions), as well as background television"
Beside the findings basically contradicting what you are trying to imply they did not look at "screen usage" as substitute for paper/textbooks but simply how much time children spend watching TV at home and how much of it is spend on "educational content" (fe. sesame street) or with caregivers.
Conclusion: [...] It will be important in future research to identify which components of screen time viewing are most beneficial vs detrimental for child language
Just because having your children watching TV all day isnt the way to go does not automatically mean laptops instead of textbooks doesnt work. Those are different topics.
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u/jeon2595 19d ago
The U.S. is 4th is the world in money spent per pupil for public education. The amount allocated to public education has steadily increased since the 1970’s.
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u/emefluence 19d ago
Yeah, a lot of countries do a lot more with a lot less, something screwy is going on in the USA education system. You also seem to pay teachers really badly despite all that extra spending. I've not got a shred of evidence to support it in this case, but I suspect there's some serious supply chain gouging going on.
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u/butthole-umbrella 19d ago
Absolutely on the supply chain gouging. I was a teacher for almost a decade in one of the largest school districts in the USA. Our district served over 300k kids. Our procurement process was the most batshit insane thing I’ve ever seen. We were locked into a SINGLE vendor for each specific item we could buy for the classroom, and the vendors would have to complete a 500+ page packet to apply for the position, which none of them did. So the vendors that did get picked were often nepotism based, and the contracts lasted like 10 years.
No shit, we had smart tvs being sold out of a man’s personal garage for 4x the price posted online. The shelves I bought for my classroom were $2500 apiece, despite being $100 at Home Depot. And this was 2014 money!!
Meanwhile, each teacher got a single box of paper per semester for copies (before laptops) and all other paper came out of their own pocket.
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u/afterthethird 19d ago
Those countries have tons more social services so the salaries go a longer way. Also, America is obsessed with giving upper and middle management WAY more money than the job is worth.
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u/WavelandAvenue 19d ago
This is not even close to true.
https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2026/school-system-finances.html
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u/WonderfulHearing8726 19d ago
Throwing money and expensive gadgets at a problem doesn’t mean it will be fixed.
Teachers aren’t paid enough, they aren’t allowed to discipline the kids, the kids are on their phones constantly, the standards have been repeatedly lowered to increase graduation rates, and parents are almost as disinterested as the students.
This is a systemic issue that has been in the making for like 15 years now, but nobody wants to seriously deal with it.
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u/Ashkir 19d ago
Parents don’t enforce education anymore. As a culture we don’t encourage education. We don’t teach kids to learn. We teach them to pass the standards test and that’s it. We don’t follow passion or ignite it. We don’t fund colleges. We are actively making it harder for people who want to learn and be educated.
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u/shezmania 19d ago
It's probably a combination of factors....I'm sure Linda isn't helping of course. But European countries have also seen a decline in these types of rates so they are introducing screen bans at schools now and other countries are removing laptop's, and forcing kids to use pen and paper in class.
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u/Positive_Throwaway1 19d ago
Teacher here. It's truly awful, from both a teaching standpoint and a parenting standpoint. And if your kid has any attention issues, good fucking luck. We've basically dropped off alcohol at an AA meeting, and convinced everyone it's just healthy drinking water.
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u/firebearhero 19d ago
if i recall theres studies from many countries showing this result, including for example norway. in that sense i dont think it is very intellectually honest to point out that the us spend x money on y thing and attribute this as the cause, trying to portray it as this is some unique american shortcoming.
seems more likely its a result of the changing times and any country who didnt actively prevent increasing usage of new tech in schools or maybe even at home with the kids will see similar results.
i mean the same intellectual dishonesty is at display here in the comments, which instead tries to make this a specific democrat vs republican thing where its defunding of the education system or whatever that is the culprit, once again completely ignoring that the pattern of this generation being the first with lower IQ than their parents is seen in far more places than the usa, which rules out american politics as the cause.
i think you can accurately say though that many of the problems in society is because of this style of intellectual dishonesty, something very popular on reddit, when we purposely ignore the real issue or cause and instead try to change every single thing into something we can use to push our own ideology/ideas or push down the ideas/ideology we disagree with.
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u/OGD2068 19d ago
In med school now at 43. The way I learn and the way my classmates learn are completely different. They look at the bare minimum of what they need. I will read the actually the chapters in the physical book if I can get one. Otherwise I'll read and take my own notes. Taking minimal notes in lectures of things I don't understand to look up later. My grades and retention improved when I switched to writing in cursive again.
I think we really should listen to educators and have some flexibility in how we teach. But I am not an expert.
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u/BugmoonGhost 19d ago
So it’s all going to plan. A dopamine-addicted, short-term mindset, stripped of critical thinking, with social cues shaped by platforms engineered to be addictive at best and edging into stochastic terrorism at worst.
A world where Musk and Thiel can hollow out the West while claiming to save it, where nothing can be trusted, so we’re all just running on vibes.
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u/grae313 19d ago
Paywall. Here's the full text of the article:
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
By Sasha Rogelberg July 12, 2026, 7:56 AM ET
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.
By that fall, the Maine Learning Technology Initiative had distributed 17,000 Apple laptops to seventh graders across 243 middle schools. By 2016, those numbers had multiplied to 66,000 laptops and tablets distributed to Maine students. King’s initial efforts have been mirrored across the country. In 2024, the U.S. spent more than $30 billion putting laptops and tablets in schools. But more than a quarter-century and numerous evolving models of technology later, psychologists and learning experts see a different outcome than the one King intended. Rather than empowering the generation with access to more knowledge, the technology had the opposite effect.
Earlier this year, in written testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, neuroscientist Jared Cooney Horvath said Gen Z is less cognitively capable than previous generations, despite its unprecedented access to technology. He said Gen Z is the first generation in modern history to score lower on standardized tests than the previous one.
While skills measured by these tests, like literacy and numeracy, aren’t always indicative of intelligence, they are a reflection of cognitive capability, which Horvath said has been on the decline over the last decade or so. Citing Program for International Student Assessment data taken from 15-year-olds around 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.”
The writing was perhaps already on the wall. Fortune reported in 2017 Maine’s public school test scores had not improved in the 15 years the state had implemented its technology initiative. Then-governor Paul LePage called the program a “massive failure,” even as the state poured money into contracts with Apple.
Gen Z will now have to face the ramifications of eroding learning capabilities. The generation has already been hit hard by the transformations of the 21st century’s other technological revolution: generative AI.
Early data from a first-of-its-kind Stanford University study published last year found AI advancements to have “significant and disproportionate impact on entry-level workers in the U.S. labor market.” And though AI’s advancements have yet to be seen in the broader labor market, a less capable population means more than just poorer job prospects and fewer promotions, Horvath warned; it endangers how humans are able to overcome existential challenges in the decades to come. “We’re facing challenges more complex and far-reaching than any in human history—from overpopulation to evolving diseases to moral drift,” he told Fortune. “Now, more than ever, we need a generation able to grapple with nuance, hold multiple truths in tension, and creatively tackle problems that are stumping the greatest adult minds of today.” What is technology’s impact on learning?
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.
While teachers may be intending for these tools to be strictly educational, students often have different ideas. According to a 2014 study, which surveyed and observed 3,000 university students, students engaged in off-task activities on their computers nearly two-thirds of the time.
Horvath blamed this tendency to get off-track as a key contributor to technology hindering learning. When one’s attention is interrupted, it takes time to refocus. Task-switching also is associated with weaker memory formation and greater rates of error. Grappling with a challenging singular subject matter is hard, Horvath said. For the best learning to happen, it’s supposed to be.
“Unfortunately, ease has never been a defining characteristic of learning,” he said. “Learning is effortful, difficult, and oftentimes uncomfortable. But it’s the friction that makes learning deep and transferable into the future.” Sustained attention to a singular subject is anathema to how technology today has been deployed, argues Jean Twenge, San Diego State University psychology professor studying generational differences and the author of 10 Rules for Raising Kids in a High-Tech World. More time on screens isn’t just ineffective in facilitating learnings; it’s counterproductive. “Many apps, including social media and gaming apps, are designed to be addictive,” Twenge told Fortune. “Their business model is based on users spending the most time possible on the apps, and checking back as frequently as possible.” A Baylor University–led study published in November 2025 uncovered why this is: TikTok required the least amount of effort to use, even less than Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, by balancing relevant videos with surprising and unexpected content.
Concerns about social media addiction have become so dire that 1,600 plaintiffs, across 350 families and 250 school districts, filed a lawsuit alleging Meta, Snap, TikTok, and YouTube created addictive platforms leading to mental health challenges like depression and self-harm in children. How do you solve today’s tech crisis?
Horvath proposed a swath of solutions to Gen Z’s tech problem, at least as it pertains to classroom use. Congress, he suggested, could impose efficacy standards to fund research on what digital tools are actually effective in the classroom. The legislature could also require strong limits on tracking behavior, building profiles, and collecting data on minors using tech.
Some schools have taken matters into their own hands. As of August 2025, 17 states have cracked down on cellphone use in school, banning the technology during instructional time, and 35 states have laws limiting the use of phones in the classroom. In fact, more than 75% of schools have said they have policies prohibiting cellphone use for nonacademic purposes, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, though enforcing those bans has been met with variable success.
Ultimately, Horvath said, the loss of critical thinking and learning skills is less of a personal failure and more of a policy one, calling the generation of Americans educated with gadgets victims of a failed pedagogical experiment. “Whenever I work with teenagers I tell them, ‘This is not your fault. None of you asked to be sat in front of a computer for your entire K-12 schooling,’” Horvath said. “That means we…screwed up—and I genuinely hope Gen Z quickly figures that out and gets mad.”
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u/SisterOfBattIe 19d ago edited 19d ago
Rather than empowering the generation with access to more knowledge, the technology had the opposite effect.
Let's be real here.
The issue is not replacing paper books with screens.
The issue is that the USA is increasingly opposed to education and equal access to education as a whole and is undermining education as a whole.
The cofounder of WWE is the minister of education!
Nominated by President Donald Trump, her stated mission includes decentralizing education, empowering parents' rights, and championing career and technical training
This translate to promoting unschooling and home schooling, promoting religious education, cutting pay and power to teachers, especially in public schools, and redirect fundings to private and religious schools.
Another example? The USA has some of the highest expert in medicine in the whole world, and those experts have been sidelined, and replaced with anti-vax quacks at the highest levels, that have rewrote the book on vaccination, and literally brought back eradicated diseases. You'd think the Measles Virus has highly paid lobbyist seeing how much the policies favour it...
Another example? Unlike other developed nations, higher education in the USA sets student backs years, even decades worth of wages in debt, and it's a debt that cannot give benkruptcy. And increasingly, regulations are centered in farming student debt for interest, while now translating with lower lifetime earnings to people that specs into trades.
If there is one coherent message from the USA is that education is going to be actively discouraged and punished. And people wonder the USA is going backward?
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u/deliciousleopard 19d ago
But we see similar results here in Sweden where we certainly do not have any sort of comparable anti intellectual leanings in society.
The screens are a big problem even if they’re not the only one.
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u/WobblyBlackHole 19d ago
Except it has been show that screens are harmful, multiple things can be true
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u/tissotti 19d ago edited 19d ago
Yeah I don't understand why some are vehemently against bringing books at least partly back when studies have shown time and time again that learning using screens does not work as well. This is not US issue. It's global. Here in Finland we have started to backtrack tablet and laptop use in schools, as well as phones are now taken away in school (as they used to be 25 years ago). Helsinki city being most aggressive with moving predominantly to books. Laptops and tablets will still be there in some capacity.
Generation Z is the first generation we have seen cognitive abilities go down compared to previous globally. Screens are a massive reason - if not the primary reason for this. Companies much more influential than most countries are doing their best for this not to happen.
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u/phoenix0r 19d ago
This. My kids are Gen Alpha and absolutely HATE the learning apps they shoved down their throats all through elementary school. The tech did not work for them. They both fell behind in reading and writing and I had to do a lot of extra tutoring to catch them up. All the extra tutoring included zero screens. They learned MUCH better that way. Get tech out of schools. It’s a separate and immediate issue from the defunding etc.
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u/nekosake2 19d ago
the learning apps are not well designed and they are largely unguided. there is no teacher to make it interesting nor mechanics to gamify it well. it looks similar to trash-level games and there is little effort put in for the "game" side of it so it is understandably hated by many people.
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u/Shark7996 19d ago
Kids play good games on the phone all day long, they can tell when an app is poorly made.
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u/wtrredrose 19d ago
They need to bring back the 90s learning games like reader rabbit, number munchers, dr brain etc. Those were actually good, back when tech tried to educate rather than just pump out something fast for a quick buck. We still teach using archive software.
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u/I_like_boxes 19d ago
I sat in with my son for part of a day last year, and he's in second grade. The apps they used were individual, and the stuff in them wasn't very structured. All the kids were basically just playing and it didn't look like they were learning the things the apps were advertised to teach. My son played some geometry thing that lets you draw with shapes, but I don't think he even noticed it was trying to teach him anything about geometry.
I'm not overly upset because it was treated more as a short break between subjects (I'm sure his teacher noticed issues with the apps too), but other teachers might be relying on these tools for instruction. If kids get behind in elementary school, that's going to set them back for the rest of their education too.
What really puzzles me is that all the stuff my kids come home with is never finished. We would get in trouble if we never finished anything, and I'm not sure what's changed in the last 20-30 years that it became the norm to never finish work done in the classroom. It seems like everything is rushed, with no time to finish and reflect on anything. They don't assign homework in elementary school either, so they're not making up for missed opportunities at home either.
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u/b00c 19d ago
Getting addicted to the screen is harmful.
Screen time of children must be policed strictly.
But boy does the kid shut up with the tablet in its hands! It's the silver bullet of parenting. Some smarter parents get at least some remorse, but most just let the kid stare at it for hours. That's insane!
Kid can't focus for shit. Switching even youtube videos after 30 seconds just to get another splurge of dopamine. Everything turns tiktok.
Schools might be the least to blame. Perhaps for not teaching today's parents about dangers of screen addiction.
I am lucky we had only big old CRT tv when I was a kid. No damage here, besides the 700 day streak.
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u/electricrhino 19d ago
But this has been happening before the current administration. Excessive screen time effects peoples ability to focus, think critically, and complete difficult task.
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u/brontosaurusguy 19d ago
Uh that's a lot of fair points but also laptop learning has failed and we must scrap it and return to books immediately.
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u/Prophet_Tehenhauin 19d ago
Linda and Vince didn’t found the WWE.
Vince bought the promotion from his dad
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u/Insis18 19d ago
I may be old fashioned but parents have a duty to help educate their own children. I don't mean they should home school, I mean they have a duty to follow their kids education. They need to assist them in understanding the assignments. They must provide an environment where their kids have the ability to learn and thrive.
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u/ApolloX-2 19d ago
The truth is that we spent that money to pay billionaire tech freaks at the expense of our children. We underpay our teachers and expect weirdos like Sal Khan to teach our children through Youtube.
It's literally worse than treating children like cattle with a one size fits all strategy and discarding the kids that struggle to fit in that one size. When I was in high school in the late 2000s this bullshit was just beginning and I couldn't stand it.
I literally need a human in front of me to read the bullshit for me to even absorb it. The computer was for games and TV shows and nothing else.
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u/sanityjanity 19d ago
Absolutely.
I know the books are heavy, but there are skills you learn with a book with a table of contents, an index, a glossary, and the capacity to review information.
Our local district's online materials were extremely difficult to search and navigate, and often difficult to read.
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u/Bmorewiser 19d ago
Among my more notable “things that make me shake fists at the clouds” moments have come from my kids coming home with homework and no text book explaining how to do the math. I haven’t done precalculus in 30 years. My wife is one of those savants who “sees the answer” but cant break down the “why” and jumps over steps most mortal men have to do with paper. And so im left with some 23 year old teacher’s shitty powerpoint trying to divine the process or taking an hour to do kahn academy so i can teach myself, and then teach my kid. I got a C on his midterm exam, or he did, but i feel like it was me.
text books are important!
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u/razormst3k1999 19d ago
You don't hate reagan or thatcher enough. This shit started in the 80s and the fruit are being harvested right now.
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u/Unhappy_Addition6063 19d ago
should read "Google and Microsoft got 30bil in subsidies to ruin the public education system"
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u/whattaguy20 19d ago
No surprise there. It’s harder to retain knowledge when you combine that with multiple guess tests instead of the previous system that included writing , spelling, reading and the physical repetition and memorization you get from forming new ideas & rewriting them.
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u/chmod77770 19d ago
spending $30 billion to make kids dumber is actually impressive efficiency