Gen Z less intelligent than millennials: How skipping books and doomscrolling are taking a toll on cognitive abilities
Generation Z is dumb! A recent report surfaced a few months ago that elite universities are altering their curricula for Gen Z students, and they are making it easier. Yes, you read that right. We know it was always a fond hope that we carried through in jejunity. But it is a practical world where it is happening. While we often add that label to every new generation of being less resilient, having less patience, and being less shiny than their predecessors. The concern this time is more than labels. A recent study on generational intelligence has thrust the debate into the global spotlight. Findings suggest Gen Z, those born between the late 1990s and early 2010s, may be the first generation to score lower in core cognitive measures than their Millennial parents, including attention, memory, problem-solving, and overall IQ. The very generation that is expected to lead the next frontier of innovation and is co-existing with robots is not being able to read a sentence properly or solve a basic math problem. This is where we are living. We can turn blind to the problem, but it might decay the very roots of the educational system.
What do the findings say?
The findings were written testimony submitted by neuroscientist and educator Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath, PhD, MEd, to the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. In that 2026 testimony, Dr. Horvath argued that over the past two decades, core aspects of cognitive development, including literacy, numeracy, attention, and higher‑order reasoning, have plateaued or reversed in many parts of the developed world. He attributed this trend largely to the rapid and largely unregulated expansion of digital and educational technology in classrooms, which he said often weakens learning outcomes rather than strengthening them.
When progress feels like decline
Artificial intelligence and mobile phones have made inroads to the classrooms as well. While we are awed by seeing its benefit, the other side of the story shouts louder. They are being sold garbed with the wrapper of educational breakthroughs, but thet are reshaping the brain in unexpected ways. The discussion has moved beyond social media jokes into serious educational policy territory. IQ is not only inherent but also sharpened through solving problems, exercising the mental muscles, and not by simply finding the solution through a half-made prompt.
Screens and superficiality: The decline of deep reading
Gone are the days when reading was the favourite pastime. Now, students are not even willing to read to gain knowledge. Across the United States and the UK, students are reading less for pleasure than ever before. According to the National Literacy Trust (2024), only about one in three children aged 8–18 enjoy reading in their free time, and barely one in five actually reads daily. In the US, daily reading among older students and adults has plummeted by more than 40% over the last two decades, according to research from the University of Florida and University College London (2025).The impact of this decline became starkly visible during the COVID-19 school closures. Stanford University research found that second- and third-graders’ oral reading fluency fell nearly 30% behind expected levels, hitting students from lower-income and underperforming districts hardest. Reading fluency is a foundation skill; without it, understanding in subjects like math, science, and social studies suffers.Harvard University studies add another layer of concern: differences in phonological processing, the ability to decode written language, appear as early as 18 months, long before children enter school. Those who miss early reading support often face widening literacy gaps that ripple through their attention, comprehension, and critical thinking skills.This decline matters. Research shows that mindless scrolling and doomscrolling disrupt working memory and reduce the mental discipline fostered by deep reading. When the brain constantly encounters fragmented information, snippets of news, short clips, attention-grabbing feeds, it is rarely exercised in sustained focus. Schooling that once demanded concentrated engagement is being replaced, in practice, by an attention economy that rewards distraction.
Doomscrolling: The anxiety curriculum that is not taught
Midnight doomscrolling is not an exception. The continuous news feeds provide an endless stream of negativity, and the machines are working to the highest level of accuracy, raising anxiety and breaking attention up. The urge to scroll further is not only a mood alterer, it is also a way of conditioning young minds to read lightly, not to read at all, to respond, not to think.This is a growing trend of behavior in schools. Most teachers observe that learners have problems with focus attention, patience on long writings and complex arguments which were once the pillars of excellence in education.
The difficulty: Bridge, blame not.
Evolution out of this generational intersection is not a tale of inescapability but a message of deliberate crafting of learning spaces:Rethink reading: Combine the practices of deep reading with digital literacy, which does not only teach students what they should read but how they should read.Conscious screen time: Establish healthy limits so that the technology enhances the process of learning instead of substituting the mental work.Reform assessment: Expand the definition of intelligence — Digital fluency, creative synthesis and ethical reasoning.
The future is not a programmed text
This Ggeneration is at a crossroad. Numbers and arguments can create a bleak image, yet it can be clear: nowadays education should be able to show students not only how to reach some knowledge but how to absorb it, to internalize it and consider it.It is no longer a blame game but a choice. That change is the true narrative of this generation, and one in which the screens remain an instrument, rather than a ruler, and reading and thought do not disappear.
