As a professor teaching at a community college, I feel the pangs of irritation every time I see a student scrolling on their phone during my lecture. It makes me feel as if I am competing for the students’ attention, and whenever I think about that ensuing battle, I know that I will lose the war. I imagine that parents, employers, and other educators feel the same way.

Due to the sudden increase of internet-accessible mobile devices and the popularity of smartphones, beginning in the early 2010’s, gaining the attention of Millennials and Gen Z has become increasingly difficult. It has been reported that by 2025, nearly three-quarters of the world’s population will have access to the Internet.

I recently viewed a video clip from Dr. Brad Marshall’s podcast “Unplugged Psychologist.” Dr. Marshall is recognized as one of Australia’s leading experts in excessive internet and screen use, otherwise known as Internet Addiction or Gaming Disorder. This video was a public court hearing testimony from Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath, a former teacher turned cognitive neuroscientist who focuses on human learning.  

Dr. Horvath spoke on the sad fact that our generation’s kids are less cognitively capable than we were at their age. He says that since the 1800’s, every generation has outperformed its parents. No matter what color you are in this country, most parents’ deepest desire is to have children who are smarter than they are. My parents and entire family wanted the later generations to be smarter than they were at a young age.

Naturally, we assume that every generation is smarter than the last generation because of schools. In Black and Brown communities, our great-great-grandparents may have only had an eighth-grade (or less) education, but our grandparents had a high school diploma. If we were fortunate, our parents may have had some college education, and if we were blessed, they may have had the opportunity to graduate from college. As the offspring of our parents, we dreamed of graduating from college, attending medical school, dental school, business school, or law school. We stood on the shoulders of our ancestors and made those dreams of education a reality.

This was a reality until Generation Z, often referred to as Gen Z. These are individuals born between 1997 and 2012, who today are 13 to 28 years old. This generation is known to be digitally savvy. Gen Z was the first to grow up entirely in the digital age. Gen Z was also known as the first generation to underperform their parents in cognitive abilities (memory, literacy, and even IQ).

The truth is that Generation Z individuals have more education and educational opportunities than their parents! How can this be? It was determined that the tools that we use now in our schools to prepare students to learn and grow in knowledge are the factor. Teachers are not to blame for this decline. We have more access to textbooks and other materials than our parents or grandparents had in their schools.

The data uncovered was that in 2010, schools accepted digital technology into the classroom. This study was observed in over 80 countries with the same results. When computers are in the classroom and students are taught by those computers, cognitive performance goes down significantly. It appears that when tech enters education, learning goes down.

There have also been studies conducted in the Science of Learning labs that seem to point directly to why learning declines when computers are in classrooms. I was pleased to hear what they discovered because my generation (Generation X) has been saying this fact since technology first appeared within our socially accepted norms. Human beings learn best from other human beings.

As infants, we learning to walk, talk, eat, and play from our parents and siblings. We learn to love and express our emotions from other people. In contrast, we learn to segregate, hate, and prejudge other human beings from people whom we love and trust. Technology gets in the way of our learning because it is unnatural for us as human beings.

What do we do in the battle against “The Machines”? How do we discover truth, justice, and love in a blur of deep fakes and digital noise? More importantly, how do we save our children from cognitive decline? We need a revolution, deeply embedded in love for one another and all our children. We need to unplug from these digital addictions and start recalibrating our children before we reach the point of no return. Digital technology is a powerful addiction, but we can overcome its trappings.

Our very future depends upon our ability to connect in real, authentic ways.