In 2002, Maine became the first state to implement a statewide laptop program to some grade levels. Then-governor Angus King saw the program as a way to put the internet at the fingertips of more children, who would be able to immerse themselves in information… King’s initial efforts have been mirrored across the country. In 2024, the U.S. spent more than $30 billion putting laptops and tablets in schools. But more than a quarter-century and numerous evolving models of technology later, psychologists and learning experts see a different outcome than the one King intended. Rather than empowering the generation with access to more knowledge, the technology had the opposite effect.
Earlier this year, in written testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, neuroscientist Jared Cooney Horvath said that Gen Z is less cognitively capable than previous generations, despite its unprecedented access to technology. He said Gen Z is the first generation in modern history to score lower on standardized tests than the previous one.
If laptops cause a decline you wonder what the effect of the AI chatboxes is going to be.
The obvious response here is “correlation is not causation.” A lot of things are worse for Gen Z. The world isn’t in the best place.
The tests don’t say declines, even. They say a lack of things increasing. Well, why would just handing kids laptops in and of itself increase things? They’re just tools.
The reason for technology is that they need to know how to use it in real life.
I would need far better claims to look at this at all. Because if I go by my own personal experiences, the people I’ve met online—especially the younger people—seem more capable of intellectual conversation. Even those I think are not as smart are having more intellectual conversations than I’ve observed in real life.
This sounds a bit like someone saying that ever since automobiles were invented, humans got more out-of-shape physically and less able to walk 9 miles than before. Sure, but the overall benefit outweighs the drawback. Just like how, ever since the calculator was invented, people got worse at arithmetic.
Schools need computers. Is anyone advocating there not be at least a computer/electronics lab? There are many secondary risks with laptops that should be mitigated, like exposure to advertising/corporate/government content, surveillance, etc. Also, in the classroom itself— correct me if I’m wrong— a tablet and stylus are infinitely more convenient than a laptop without that functionality in order to take notes, access e-books and so on.
If students are undergoing “cognitive decline” (is there evidence of that?) you can’t blame the tools.
Have all American students been given laptops? If not, can we see data comparing the test results of students who have been given laptops and those who haven’t? Furthermore, I assume that in places where students were not given laptops by the state, a certain number of students were given laptops by their parents. Can we see data comparing the test results of students with laptops and without laptops from the same school system? That would give is even more relevant results.
In many (most? all?) school settings, physical textbooks and other old-school educational materials have been replaced by resources that can only be accessed online.
The OP mentions standardized tests. Nowadays, most standardized tests are given on computers. If the students don’t have laptops or something similar, how are they even taking those standardized tests?
There are some real downsides of laptop usage too that shouldn’t be altogether ignored… focus is a big one, not just in terms of students not being able to pay attention to the screen and the teacher at the same time, but also in their ability to distract themselves. Something as innocuous as a Google Doc can be easily turned into a class chatroom for gossip, without the teacher knowing. If you don’t block social media, it’s going to be even worse. And even if you do, they’ll find ways around your blocks.
Kids also learn differently when taking notes on a laptop vs writing them down.
And Gen Z had it rough overall, though, and laptops stealing attention is just one tiny part of the issue. They grew up in a world in constant crisis, a pandemic in their formative years, a dead job market upon graduation, and a dying country not a few years later. It’s hard to give a damn about your classes in that sort of environment, laptop or not. They’re way more aware of goings-on in the world than previous generations and yet were given way less agency and opportunity compared to even Millenials and Gen X, much less Boomers. Especially in the US, where primary ed is basically an afterthought and children are educationally quite coddled, with not much expected of them, compared to the rest of the world. We don’t exactly give them many tools for success, and blindly relying on technology without addressing the deeper structural issues just makes technology an easy scapegoat.
Nah, that’s going to be selecting for ‘parents who think it’s important for their kids to have a laptop and can afford to give them one’ which would likely skew the data far more than just those with/without laptop.
It would probably actually be quite tricky to unpick impacts, as presumably classes in which all the kids have a laptop would be teaching slightly different course content to those without, otherwise you’d either have teaching which wasn’t taking full advantage of the computers, or teaching stuff which really requires one to be helpful (such as programming basics) to kids writing things down on paper.
Having had friends who were university lecturers who had 18-19 year old students who, when faced with a programme not available on their phone had no idea how to even turn the PC on (and in one case tried to press the mouse to the screen to select stuff), I do think schools should be ensuring computer use is taught. On the other hand, kids also do need to be regularly faced with problems without having AI or search engines available to immediately find the answers.
Personally I’d WAG the opimal option being having one, but only having it available in some classes, with that varying by age.
Traditionally you would have a sheet of paper with little ovals preprinted on the sheet (maybe 5 or so for each question) and you would select your choice by filling in the relevant oval with a pencil–the same type of procedure one used for voting in elections.
Studies show that the physical act of writing engages areas of the brain related to memory, comprehension, and attention in ways that typing simply doesn’t achieve. Gen X developed these neural pathways out of necessity, and they’re still firing decades later.
I didn’t dig any deeper, but am a bit skeptical about it.
As specifically noted in the OP, some states and school districts provide laptops to all students. However, what you point out is probably one factor driving why some students don’t have access to laptops, which likely skews towards:
Poorer communities and poorer school districts
Poorer families
Indifferent parents
As you noted, comparing school performance and test results for those students with laptops, versus those without, has a bunch of other lurking variables in there.
I’m Gen X and I almost never physically write anything other than putting my signature on something. Probably been years since I wrote something the length of a sentence.
I’m also Gen X (58 years old). I remember the days of writing and writing and writing, and I have no fondness or nostalgia for it. I still jot things down on occasion, though.
My skepticism kicked in as soon as I saw, “brains were wired”.
Gen X represents the last generation whose brains developed in an analog world. They learned to write before they learned to type. They memorized phone numbers because smartphones didn’t exist. They took notes by hand because that was the only option.
How does the author define “Gen X”? Because this also describes many if not most older Millennials.
The school gave my kid (and all others) a Chromebook laptop. There is one very large way that it causes cognitive decline that is probably not mentioned in the article.
My kid was sneaking the laptop into their room after bedtime to play games and watch videos. Sleep deprivation is a very reliable method to decrease school performance.
I’m serious about this, too. I believe access to technology is important, but it is also very obvious that using that technology to watch YouTube at 1am on a school night will result in decreased school performance, and there is no way my kid is the only one who has figured this out.
Long story about parent/child fights over light night technology use.
I can use Apple’s parental control stuff to lock my kid’s phone down at night, but because the Chromebook is managed by the school, I can’t use Google’s parental controls to limit night time usage.
I banned the laptop from my wifi, because without internet access after hours usage is much less interesting. However, in a huge oversight on Apple’s part, mobile hotspot can be enabled even when the phone is completely locked down. My kid figured out they can turn on the hotspot on their otherwise useless phone, and then connect the Chromebook to the hotspot, and be back online.
I tried using a cable lock to chain the Chromebook down, but the plastic case is so flimsy the lock can be popped off without even breaking the plastic.
Finally we went to the rule that any after hours computer use resulted in losing the phone for the next day. After testing the rules a bit and finding we were serious, my kid has stopped this whole nonsense.
Yeah, my kid didn’t stay up until 1am but was definitely staying up later than her bedtime on her computer. We instituted the rule (which it sounds like you already had, you’re smarter than I am) that the laptop and phone were never to go into her bedroom, and my husband stays up late enough that she wouldn’t be able to sneak it into her room even if she thought of it – and she’s actually pretty law-abiding, so I don’t think that would occur to her, particularly because she did have buy-in to the rule, as she was realizing that excessive internet time was making it harder for her to meet the goals she wanted.
As to the OP, in general I think these technologies are causing my kids to have a shorter attention span (me too), although it also of course has opened them up to all kinds of cool resources they wouldn’t have otherwise. I think it’s important for them to have some time that’s off the screen, though my older kid in particular is in a situation where she needs some screen time just to get her schoolwork and extracurricular stuff done.
Our neighbors regularly complained about this with their HS sons some 5+ years ago. The dad was some kind of IT guy, but apparently he was never able to figure out how to restrict them. And for whatever reason they were resistant to the low tech approaches such as you found successful.
Definitely made me appreciate raising kids in times when we just had a single household computer in a central location…