It is a question that has been haunting many people who have observed the changes of the past couple of decades: are we getting dumber? Countless individuals have argued that the introduction of smartphones has fried our brains and their attention spans, and the spread of generative AI has only made this problem worse. 

No matter how much it might not be helpful to lean into tech doomerism, it has to be said that a world where people have widespread access to these things is very different to a world that doesn’t. And, while this affects everyone, it is the younger generations who have spent almost their entire lives around these kinds of technologies who are molded by it the most.

A common complaint of educators in this day and age is that a reliance on phones and all the tools that come with them can make students much worse to teach. Sometimes, though, the reality of this doesn’t sink in until we some proof.