cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/49390565
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.
By that fall, the Maine Learning Technology Initiative had distributed 17,000 Apple laptops to seventh graders across 243 middle schools. By 2016, those numbers had multiplied to 66,000 laptops and tablets distributed to Maine students.
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.
This article is so clearly not acting in good faith.
- None of the cited data that tries to assert "less cognitive ability " has any sort of control group??? Huh???
- Sure, some studies (with proper control groups n stuff) are cited. But they’re specifically for other topics like mental healgh due to social media usage and so on. None that have anything to do with cognitive ability. ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU TRY TO PAINT SCHOOL LAPTOPS AS A NEGATIVE.
Down vote me all you want, but the folks in the comments must be a little ashamed for spreading and supporting sensational bullshit cuz it supports their worldview. This behaviour is no different than boomers posting “articles” about how climate change is bullshit and how vaccines cause autism.
And not ONE person critically analyses this article??? Seriously??? Everyone’s on the bandwagon of “yeah yeah, tech is destroying them keeyds and making them stupider”. So uncool.
Yeah, sure, it’s the tech and not a failing education system. It’s the smart phones and not that dad’s too busy arguing with libs on facebook to teach me how to change a spark plug. It’s chatGPT and… Actually that might’ve played a part.
But you get the point; everyone is so fucking desperare to paint my generation like a generation of failures instead of a generation that’s been failed and finding ways to thrive anyway.
They did that to millennials too
Which is why it pisses me off when I see Millennials do it to us, like, bruh, we’re in the same camp!
They still do that to millennials. Boomers haven’t stopped berating us for not having houses or giving them grandchildren.
I’m on the Millenial-Gen X cusp so I’ve been getting the best of all that shit my whole life and I hate seeing it on repeat with Z and Alpha.
Stop blaming kids for you failimg them.
Also, I just recently realized that all thr movies I grew up with depicted 30 somethings like their lives were over while camp and highschool movies abounded.
The boomers were a generation that peaked in highschool and had their mediocrity catered to the rest of their lives.
Sorry, off topic but really cute fursona!!!
Thanks! I’d love to say the same (assuming you’re a furry), but your pfp is currently broken on my end.
Ok, fair point. More research is needed
My theory is that technology provides cognitive shortcuts/a way to offload cognitive labor.
If you learn the basics without technology, you have to have fundamental understanding and skills.
If you start with technological assistance right away, you may never build that fundamental level of understanding and skill.
The more the tech does for you, the worse it is. You may never learn critical thinking, problem solving, memory, or concentration skills if the answers are just handed to you.
It’s such a difficult problem, because it’s so ingrained in our evolution. We are hard wired to find the solution which requires the least effort. This did wonders for our species, and it led to every revolution in history. However, we’re at a crossroads now, and I don’t see any way out of it. There’s just no stopping the momentum.
Eventually, the complexity of our tasks should catch up, forcing us to do a lot of mental work again even with the novel tools.
If you start with technological assistance right away, you may never build that fundamental level of understanding and skill.
That’s the whole point! They can sell you the technology and you are dependent. They have control. They just market it as “safety features” because who doesn’t want safety?
Sam Altman literally said he wants to sell intelligence on tap. What did you think that will look like? The owe worship class doesn’t want smart thinking people, it want obedient workers just smart enough not to damage themselves or cause inconvenience.
Robots will be our replacement, until then we are just sheep.
the parents also suck
Late millennial/early Gen Z postgraduate student here.
While generational theory is BS, I can see this particular part somewhat in my own life and career.
I can accumulate knowledge quite readily, I can store a lot of information, but I have issues actually deriving knowledge from it, tying different things together and seeing what’s behind the data.
This comes to a large dismay of my older superiors, who grasp it way more readily even with the things they didn’t face before.
It also followed me through school and other parts of life. Sure, I know geometry, but how do I know to look for that angle for solutions? Sure, I know how to use Linux terminal, but oooh wait I could do that with this? Sure, I know bread’s crumb must get to about 100°C in the center when baked, but oooh you can actually just pierce it with a thermometer?
The problem is not lacking knowledge, it’s connecting the dots. As more and more everyday thinking gets offloaded, so does a simple wisdom and solution-making.
It’s the difference between understanding the concept vs understanding the material. Someone shows you how to use a hammer to whack nails into a piece of wood, it’s up to you to decide it can also crack walnuts, smash car windows to steal visible bags and items of high value, makeshift mortal and pestle, etc.
Could this possibly be a function of how much experience you have? I’m 50 and I remember being in my twenties and knowing a lot of rote knowledge but then not being really great at some more abstract thought. It took a while to start intuiting my way through problems And connecting different ideas.
I really hate the “you’ll know better when you’re older” arguments people make to dismiss a younger person’s opinion or whatever, but I will say I have grown to appreciate how experienced people, regardless of age, can better adapt to certain situations because they’ve had to deal with them more often than I have.
All that to say my gut reaction is that this is a “kids these days” article dressed up with some flowery scientific buzzwords that all of us new old people can smugly latch on to and tut-tut about.
Very much could be, and I consider this to be an alternative explanation. Time will tell, I guess :)
Thanks for that insight.
So I, being a bit older, may find more uses for a stick. But you are more likely to be able to use your phone (take a photo, message a friend, ask an LLM, use an app) to solve many problems.
Fair enough!
Honestly, I feel like older generation is in a bit of a vicious circle around tech:
- Afraid to make mistakes and do something bad and irreversible
- Thereby not gaining the experience needed for the confident use of tech and building intuitive understanding of it
- Go to point 1.
Younger folks met tech revolution as children, they have much easier time with “click and see what happens” mentality. Less responsibility, more curiosity. So when they mature, they already know what can or cannot be done safely.
The only piece of advice I can give is that you really cannot accidentally cause irreversible damage to your devices (unless you drop them, lol), and information can be backed up so you don’t have to worry about that. Then, just play around and find what happens! Yes, really.
ChatGPT, how should I feel about this news?
Great question! Asking that is not just valid – it’s essential.
Just like the rulings class wants it.
Corpo’s hard work is finally paying off.
So i can now authoritatively call them ‘those dumb kids’?
George Carlin warned us…
Maybe they should have gone for raspberrypis instead of ipads. What a waste.
Yeah, definitely
