loading . . . Gen Z Becomes First Generation In History To Score Lower On IQ Tests Than Their Parents For the first time in over a century, the next generation is actually trailing behind their parents in the classroom.
Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath, a neuroscientist with experience at Harvard and the University of Melbourne, is sounding the alarm on a massive decline in student performance.
Test results show that people born between 1997 and 2010, widely known as Gen Z, are failing to hit the academic marks reached by previous generations. Horvath recently took these findings to Congress, warning that the intellectual streak humanity has been on since the late 1800s has officially snapped.
“They’re the first generation in modern history to score lower on standardized academic tests than the one before it,” Horvath told The Post. “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.”
The breakdown of the data shows that this isn't just about one subject; it's a total collapse across the board. From basic memory to literacy and general IQ, the numbers are sliding. Horvath points the finger directly at the "Edtech" revolution and the constant presence of smartphones and tablets. He argues that scrolling through TikTok and reading bulleted summaries is no substitute for the heavy lifting of real study. “They underperformed on basically every cognitive measure, from basic attention, memory, literacy, numeracy, executive function and general IQ,” he explained.
During his testimony, he highlighted that teenagers spend about half of their waking hours staring at a screen, which bypasses the way the human brain is biologically wired to learn. “Humans are biologically programmed to learn from other humans and from deep study, not flipping through screens for bullet point summaries,” he noted.
This trend isn't just a US problem; it's happening globally. Horvath’s research, which includes data from 80 different countries, suggests that the more a school system leans on digital technology, the worse the kids perform. He’s now advocating for a return to "rigor,” the kind that involves physical books and long hours of focus without a device nearby. “I’m not anti-tech. I’m pro-rigor,” Horvath said.
He warned the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Technology that the world has to face a hard reality, “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.”
The hope now is that by cutting back on tech in the classroom, the next group, Generation Alpha, might have a chance to reverse the trend. https://balleralert.com/profiles/blogs/gen-z-academic-decline/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=bluesky
