Gen Z less intelligent than older generations, scientist discloses
Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath, a neuroscientist, has raised concerns on the impact of technology on young minds, asserting that Generation Z — often considered as those born between 1997 and 2010 — records less academic performance than the generation before it.
According to Horvath, every generation outperforms the one before it in cognitive and educational assessment. Gen Z has become the first modern generation to perform less than its predecessors.
Horvath, according to New York Post stated: “They’re the first generation in modern history to score lower on standardized academic tests than the one before it. And to make matters worse, most of these young people are overconfident about how smart they are. The smarter people think they are, the dumber they actually are.
“They underperformed on basically every cognitive measure, from basic attention, memory, literacy, numeracy, executive function and general IQ.”
Horvath told a US congressional panel that Gen Z’s attitude towards learning has retrogressed decades of academic progress.
“More than half of the time a teenager is awake, half of it is spent staring at a screen. Humans are biologically programmed to learn from other humans and from deep study, not flipping through screens for bullet point summaries.”
He emphasized the negative influence of digital devices like phones, tablets and laptops, on classroom instruction and students’ personal time, which has reduced meaningful engagement with books and structured learning.
He noted that on-screen learning is on surface-level, as it does not promote deep understanding, as such, students just skim through texts rather than engage in detailed reading and thinking.
“I’m not anti-tech. I’m pro-rigor,” he stated, while calling on schools to return to traditional teaching methods and reduced screen-based learning.
“A sad fact our generation has to face is this: Our kids are less cognitively capable than we were at their age.
“We have been standardizing and measuring cognitive development since the late 1800s. Every generation has outperformed their parents until Gen Z.”
He added that the trend was not limited to the United States, noting that data from several countries supported the assessment.
“Across 80 countries, if you look at the data, once countries adopt digital technology widely in schools, performance goes down significantly,” he said.
He said that each time time “tech enters education, learning goes down”, calling on lawmakers to reassess the role of technology in schools, and adopt a more meticulous approach to study.
