Raising The First Generation To Score Lower Than The Last

If today’s kids are struggling more with focus, memory, deep reading, and complex thinking, is it really their fault, or are the adults raising them part of the problem?

We’re taught to honor our parents. But what happens when parents are exhausted, glued to their own screens, or simply unequipped for the digital world their children inhabit? What if the adults in charge stopped saying “no” when it mattered most?

In written testimony submitted to the U.S. Senate in 2026, neuroscientist Jared Cooney Horvath delivered a sobering message: children across much of the developed world appear to be underperforming on multiple cognitive measures, including sustained attention, working memory, reading comprehension, numeracy, executive function, and certain standardized academic scores.

For over a century, each generation outperformed the last on intelligence and cognitive tests (the Flynn Effect). That trend has now reversed in key domains, despite Gen Z spending more years in school and having access to more information and technology than any generation before them.

A major culprit? Constant exposure to short-form video content like TikTok, Instagram Reels, Snapchat, and YouTube Shorts, which include endless feeds engineered for rapid dopamine hits and constant task-switching.

The more young people consume these platforms, the harder it becomes to:

• Sustain attention on a single task
• Read deeply or retain complex information
• Sit with discomfort long enough to think through difficult ideas
• Build strong working memory and executive function

Kids didn’t design these addictive systems. Adults built the apps, created the smartphones, wrote the algorithms, pushed the technology into classrooms, and too often, failed to set firm boundaries at home.

This isn’t just a “kid problem.” It’s a societal one. Blaming Gen Z lets the real decision-makers off the hook: the tech companies optimizing for engagement over development, the schools trading textbooks for screens, and the parents who surrendered oversight.

We can reverse this trajectory. It will require uncomfortable but necessary shifts:

• Strict, consistent limits on recreational screen time (especially short-form video)
• A deliberate return to long-form reading, analog learning, and uninterrupted deep work
• Parents and guardians willing to enforce boundaries, even when kids push back
• Schools and policymakers prioritizing cognitive development over convenience and trends

This isn’t about shaming a generation and their parents. It’s about facing reality: the kind of future we’re building depends on the choices adults make today. The data is clear. The reversal is happening.