Gen Z has managed something no modern generation pulled off before. After more than a century of steady academic gains, test scores finally went the other direction. For the first time ever, a new generation is officially dumber than the previous one.
The data comes from neuroscientist Jared Cooney Horvath, who has spent years reviewing standardized testing results across age groups. “They’re the first generation in modern history to score lower on standardized academic tests than the one before it,” Horvath told the New York Post. The declines cut across attention, memory, literacy, numeracy, executive function, and general IQ. That’s not just one weak spot. That’s the whole darn dashboard blinking at once.
Horvath took the same message to Capitol Hill during a 2026 Senate hearing on screen time and children. His framing skipped the generational dunking and focused on exposure. “More than half of the time a teenager is awake, half of it is spent staring at a screen,” he told lawmakers. Human learning, he argued, depends on sustained attention and interaction with other people. Endless feeds and condensed content don’t offer either.
Whether it is true or not, i love how the article reflexively blames Gen Z. Like, did they invent Tiktok and brainrot? Did they ruin the school system? Did they put microplastics in the food and water?
Boomers invented Participation Trophies and then blamed Millennials for receiving them. I was a Millennial that would rather have failed then get one and the school system hated me for that
No but they use these things even with warnings. And certainly use chatgpt where possible to avoid learning despite being warned.(lots of teachers have been very vocal about this). That’s a self made choice even with education about the choice.
kids in previous generations experimented with pipe bombs (which they didn’t invent the idea) and blew off their hands.
These kids were warned not to.
Yet not all kids play with pipe bombs and lose their hands. Hmm. Almost like kids are capable of individually accepting education about the choices they make.
So I guess no, you don’t have to invent the thing to be partial to be compliant if even fully certain in your own demise.
I don’t think making pipe bombs is as widely accessible or addictive as using AI, but sure, good analogy
I partially agree with you. When i was young, some kids smoked even though the risk was quite clear. As a society, though, we banned kids from buying cigarettes because young people often make bad decisions. it’s not even their fault - it’s a prefrontal cortex thing. we can’t just say, ‘kids were warned’
clarification- when i say it’s not their fault i am referring to them being bad at making decisions. it is partially their fault about smoking, and partially due to them having poor impulse control and an intense need to conform.