I know most won't want to watch everything.

In short IQ and ability is rapidly dropping in young people. And he blames this on several factors but all are related to screen time. Using iPads or laptops for education is not working and he explains the mechanism as to why the screen stops learning.

One interesting thing he points out is that using the same device to watch movies and play games reduces the average person's ability to also use the tool to learn.

I would say anyone over 35 already knows the kids are not the same. Poor social skills, short attention spans, poorly skilled at anything physical etc.

Listened to that yesterday while pulling weeds.

It resonated with me quite a bit. I taught physics at our coop last year and several stories were relatable to the discussion, including the point you highlighted.

Sometimes an assignment would include watching a video and many times I could tell students took nothing away from it. They admitted while the video was playing, they would be checking instagram or texting. Some would use AI to get homework answers, but they learned nothing in doing so. These were well behaved, capable kids. If I had them do a problem in class they could work through it, but I couldn't spend all class time doing homework problems.

I enjoyed his comments about how we can be certain that children aren't just replacing learned skills we value with learned skills that we don't value. Any way you slice the data they are just less capable than older generations.

The anecdote about the child not knowing how to order food from a human after the touchscreens went down hurts me to think about.

Our young people aren't able to work with others in very basic ways. Not all of them, but a large portion.

Didn't listen but I assume this is the result of the screen time of the parents, not as much the children.

The good thing about the youth being smartphone zombies is that now you can be autistic without looking weird.

BonfireNerd04 said:

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The good thing about the youth being smartphone zombies is that now you can be autistic without looking weird.

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It's the parents that are zombies.

Why the "cellphone bans" in schools have little effect and are a dumb idea.

Like taking out cokes and candy bars from schools was going to make kids less fat. It's bad parenting, not bad kids and tech companies.

flown-the-coop said:

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Didn't listen but I assume this is the result of the screen time of the parents, not as much the children.

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Both but mostly the kids

Hardcore Greg said:

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I am trying my best to raise my 5 y/o girl like it is the 80's/90's. I know that's impossible to achieve, but I am doing so to the greatest extent possible. Outdoors as much as possible. This afternoon we'll go to the pool and work on swimming. Maybe fishing tomorrow evening.

Also, I am basically never on my phone around her and am trying to condition her to view too much phone/ipad as a dangerous and addicting thing. I realize that the real challenge is going to start in the coming years though.

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It's not impossible to achieve; the question is if you're willing to pay the price (100% worth it ). Put them in a coop or school where most (if not all parents) forbid screen time (this means no public or large privates) and there's a negative stigma to having a phone. Let her grow up without the anxiety and depression.

Martels Hammer said:

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flown-the-coop said:

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Didn't listen but I assume this is the result of the screen time of the parents, not as much the children.

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Both but mostly the kids

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mostly parents, agree to disagree.

For instance, who provided the screen to them?

There are a lot of teachers talking about this. Kids now are completely different than kids 10-15 years ago. Almost none of them can pay attention to anything for more than a few minutes at a time.

Whatabout scream time?

Teachers have gotten exponentially worse over that time than the students. Parents as well.

Parents need to step it up and teachers need accountability.

Education admins need to be deported.

Hardcore Greg said:

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I am trying my best to raise my 5 y/o girl like it is the 80's/90's. I know that's impossible to achieve, but I am doing so to the greatest extent possible. Outdoors as much as possible. This afternoon we'll go to the pool and work on swimming. Maybe fishing tomorrow evening.

Also, I am basically never on my phone around her and am trying to condition her to view too much phone/ipad as a dangerous and addicting thing. I realize that the real challenge is going to start in the coming years though.

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I have a counter to this.

I took my boys camping and on a hike they were using an app on their phone to identify any species of plant they could. And then would add to a virtual collection. Even used it to identify poison ivy around us. At night they used one to identify stars and constellations.

Took them fishing on the coast and one of them used saltstrong to identify good spots, tidal times, wind, and suggestions for bait and colors. He limited out on trout before I did. He also used his phone to teach himself fishing knots, including some I didn't know about.

A smart phone is a tool. Teach them the right way to use them.

IQ is mainly regressing because IQ is largely hereditary and IQ and fertility rates are inversely correlated.

BDub3 said:

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IQ is mainly regressing because IQ is largely hereditary and IQ and fertility rates are inversely correlated.

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explains the rise of democrats.

BDub3 said:

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IQ is mainly regressing because IQ is largely hereditary and IQ and fertility rates are inversely correlated.

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Yes no

The offspring of high and low IQ people regress back to the mean overtime. But it's the mean of the racial group. Nobody likes any of that so it gets ignored.

It's a chicken v egg problem. Some parents don't discipline their kids and don't teach them to have respect for elders or teachers. Administrators have adopted critical social theory theology so teachers have no support for disciplining students. The problem kids end up running the classrooms and ruining learning for all the other students.

Then you add on all of this attention deficit and screen addiction. Even the good teachers are struggling to keep kids focused in class.

A lot of good teachers don't want to deal with any of that so they go do something else.

And water is wet….

A lot of speech delay as well

So bad teachers, admins and parents like I said.

People should be better, expect better.

We are kind of in a Trading Places type of environmental versus nature type of issue.

But the fact remains that every generation during the 20th Century advanced in skills, knowledge, critical thinking, from the one before them.

UNTIL, Gen Z. I think that roughly contains people born from 1997 to 2012? (Please correct me if I am wrong on that.) And the smartphones came out in say1996?

And the studies about this cross different countries, with different education systems, includes IQ tests from selective service (military and most understand it is hard to fail those) etc.

FTR: I include parental skills as an environmental issue.

I think the biggest issue is time wasted and lost.

As for making people dumber, I'm skeptical. It's easy to pick it as the new Boogeyman.

What's ironic is this topic was selected to draw clicks.

Phones, if used incorrectly, make students dumbasses.

It's a societal problem - primarily parents, then administration, then teachers. No accountability. If parents don't hold kids accountable, it doesn't matter what anyone else does. I could always tell the students whose parents were involved in their lives and held them accountable, and those who didn't. I quit teaching due to the principal having a stupid discipline policy primarily, but also the ****ty parents.

My dad would beat my ass if I did anything remotely wrong - guess what - even when I had bad teachers or a bad principal, I still learned and did what I was told.

Frok said:

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I think the biggest issue is time wasted and lost.

As for making people dumber, I'm skeptical. It's easy to pick it as the new Boogeyman.

What's ironic is this topic was selected to draw clicks.

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Memory retention skills are different than being "dumber"

Impaired memory retention skills equals learning/not learning in a meaningful way. I am one of those odd people who read so much when I was young that I also often dream in print. Black and white print. Eidetic memory also requires full focus and some time. Much more time than scrolling through an I-phone feed..

It is not a broken education system, or do nothing parents.

doubledog said:

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It is not a broken education system, or do nothing parents.

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Right. It's both plus administrators who all behave like that teachers union ***** during COVID.

doubledog said:

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It is not a broken education system, or do nothing parents.

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Then what are the causes and contributing factors, in your mind, for this regression over the last generation?

Education system has been warped by the hippies, no accountability or respect for authority anymore.
On that note:

Just read anxious generation and you will take the screens away.

Also parents, if you give your kids a screen to distract them at the dinner table or in the car, you are part of the problem.

You should have seen the dealer's face when he gleefully showed us the rear seat screens with integrated streaming and we asked if they would remove it before we bought. He couldn't comprehend.

reineraggie09 said:

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Just read anxious generation and you will take the screens away.

Also parents, if you give your kids a screen to distract them at the dinner table or in the car, you are part of the problem.

You should have seen the dealer's face when he gleefully showed us the rear seat screens with integrated streaming and we asked if they would remove it before we bought. He couldn't comprehend.

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People who spend a lot of time around students who are not their own kids know this is the issue.

People who only spend time around their own kids do not know this is the issue.

Teslag said:

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Hardcore Greg said:

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I am trying my best to raise my 5 y/o girl like it is the 80's/90's. I know that's impossible to achieve, but I am doing so to the greatest extent possible. Outdoors as much as possible. This afternoon we'll go to the pool and work on swimming. Maybe fishing tomorrow evening.

Also, I am basically never on my phone around her and am trying to condition her to view too much phone/ipad as a dangerous and addicting thing. I realize that the real challenge is going to start in the coming years though.

---

I have a counter to this.

I took my boys camping and on a hike they were using an app on their phone to identify any species of plant they could. And then would add to a virtual collection. Even used it to identify poison ivy around us. At night they used one to identify stars and constellations.

Took them fishing on the coast and one of them used saltstrong to identify good spots, tidal times, wind, and suggestions for bait and colors. He limited out on trout before I did. He also used his phone to teach himself fishing knots, including some I didn't know about.

A smart phone is a tool. Teach them the right way to use them.

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Disagree. A smartphone is a crutch. It's a reference that kids are trained to rely on. The second that that phone is taken away everything they used the phone for are instantly gone, and they panic when they have no ability to know pretty much anything in front of them. They rely on it just to walk around, not to learn from. It's a tool in the way your brain is a tool, not as a book is a tool. You take the brain away and you have a mindless drone that can't do anything for themselves.

I remember someone recently saying that the current generation (and arguably the previous as well) is technology dependent, not technology competent (so they'd panic if something breaks, since they are never taught what to do when something works, other than call someone to fix it for them). I took that to mean that they not only can't function without technological references, but that they also can't fix something if it breaks and turn instantly helpless and mindless. Not sure that the latter is a completely correct assessment, but the former absolutely is. Without technology this entire generation would simply cease to function. You make someone dependent on something, then take it away, and see what happens. Like any drug, until you get that back you are unable to do anything without it.

Kids need to learn for themselves, not rely on their phones to tell them the answer to everything. Especially since after they use it as a reference to tell them something they instantly forget it. There is no learning involved, simply dependence. It is no longer a tool. It is a drug that they cannot function without.

Frok said:

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I think the biggest issue is time wasted and lost.

As for making people dumber, I'm skeptical. It's easy to pick it as the new Boogeyman.

What's ironic is this topic was selected to draw clicks.

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I am unsure if it makes people dumber (although im pretty sure it does), but it absolutely inhibits people from becoming smarter. For someone in their 50s that doesnt matter. For someone in their teens...yeah, they're screwed.

Kaiser von Wilhelm said:

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Teslag said:

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Hardcore Greg said:

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I am trying my best to raise my 5 y/o girl like it is the 80's/90's. I know that's impossible to achieve, but I am doing so to the greatest extent possible. Outdoors as much as possible. This afternoon we'll go to the pool and work on swimming. Maybe fishing tomorrow evening.

Also, I am basically never on my phone around her and am trying to condition her to view too much phone/ipad as a dangerous and addicting thing. I realize that the real challenge is going to start in the coming years though.

---

I have a counter to this.

I took my boys camping and on a hike they were using an app on their phone to identify any species of plant they could. And then would add to a virtual collection. Even used it to identify poison ivy around us. At night they used one to identify stars and constellations.

Took them fishing on the coast and one of them used saltstrong to identify good spots, tidal times, wind, and suggestions for bait and colors. He limited out on trout before I did. He also used his phone to teach himself fishing knots, including some I didn't know about.

A smart phone is a tool. Teach them the right way to use them.

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Disagree. A smartphone is a crutch. It's a reference that kids are trained to rely on. The second that that phone is taken away everything they used the phone for are instantly gone, and they panic when they have no ability to know pretty much anything in front of them. They rely on it just to walk around, not to learn from. It's a tool in the way your brain is a tool, not as a book is a tool. You take the brain away and you have a mindless drone that can't do anything for themselves.

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What's the difference between a phone and a book in this situation? Do you remember the pictures and words you get from a book better than you do from a phone?

I use picture recognition quite a bit to fight weeds in my yard, identify trees and plants I see when I go for runs, and have used it to identify insects, as well. It's no different than referencing a book. I can't recall the name of everything I've ever looked up, but ones I've looked up 2-3 times I remember beyond that. Just as if I referenced a book.

The problem is not the media you're using. The problem is that students aren't focused on learning the material. We think just shoving a tablet in their face and walking away is sufficient for them to learn. What did y'all do when the teacher put on a video in class and then sat at their desk grading papers? I'm willing to bet you didn't learn anything. Same with doodling, passing notes, chatting up the girl in front of you, or sleeping while the teacher is lecturing.

My kids have to do homework online from time to time. When they do, they are forced to sit at a desk or table with no other devices or distractions and I check in on them periodically and check their work. A lot of times I like to ask them what they found interesting, what they learned, etc. to make sure they are recalling the information effectively.

Y'all can blame screens all you want, but the problem is not the media but the fact that we put 100% of the learning on the media.