The first generation raised entirely online is now posting some of the sharpest declines in reading, math, and attention ever recorded.
Gen Z grew up with the whole internet in their pocket, so you would think this would be the smartest generation in history. Yet in 2022, 15-year-olds across OECD countries scored about 15 points lower in math and 10 points lower in reading than in 2018.
At the same time, teenagers are staring at screens more than ever. Recent estimates suggest teens now spend about 7 to 8 hours a day on screens, with roughly 4 to 5 of those hours on social media alone.
Neuroscientist Torkel Klingberg spends his days looking at brain scans and test scores, and what he sees in today’s teens keeps tugging at him.
Historic Drop In Global Test Scores
Across the world, 15-year-olds are hitting a weird academic speed bump. The PISA 2022 Results, Volume I report shows math scores falling by about 15 points and reading by 10 compared to 2018, the sharpest drop since the tests began. The OECD says that it is like losing roughly three-quarters of a school year in math.
What worries researchers is that scores were already sliding before COVID, so it is not just “pandemic learning loss.” A paper titled “The Cognitive Decline of Generation Z: Technological Dependence, Digital Overexposure and the Historic Collapse of PISA Performance” argues that phones and online life are part of the story.
It claims that digital overload is chipping away at basic skills in this generation.
The Flynn Effect Is Stalling And Bending Back
For most of the 1900s, IQ scores kept rising. A meta-analysis by Jakob Pietschnig and Martin Voracek in Perspectives on Psychological Science showed average gains of about 2 or 3 IQ points per decade. This is called the Flynn effect.
Then things shifted. In 2018, Bernt Bratsberg and Ole Rogeberg published a paper in PNAS using Norwegian army conscription data. They found that people born after the mid 1970s started scoring lower than those born earlier, not higher.
A 2019 paper in Intelligence reported similar drops in fluid IQ for older U.S. teens, especially in lower-scoring groups. So the line that used to go up is now flattening, or even dipping, for some Gen Z teens.
Screens Are Reshaping Attention Circuits
When neuroscientist Torkel Klingberg at the Karolinska Institutet looks at phones, he sees attention circuits under strain. In work summarized by News India Times and based on a Pediatrics preprint from the large U.S. ABCD Study, his team found that high overall screen time in early adolescents was tied to slower processing speed, weaker working memory, and more inattention symptoms.
Social media stood out as a bigger red flag than television or gaming. Klingberg describes social platforms as putting the brain into “continuous partial attention,” where a slice of your mind is always listening for the next ping instead of locking fully onto a task.
That fragmented state might feel normal in a group chat, but for homework and learning, it is like trying to run a race while someone keeps tugging your sleeve.
Social Media Use Tied To Lower Reading And Memory
A huge U.S. project called the ABCD Study has been following thousands of kids since age 9 or 10, tracking their screen habits and administering learning and memory tests over time. Researchers analyzed social media patterns among more than 6,000 preteens, and they found three groups.
Some used little or no social media. Some slowly climbed to about one hour a day. A smaller group reached three or more hours a day.
When the kids did tests later, the “one hour” group scored 1 to 2 points lower in reading and memory than non-users, and the “three hour” group scored 4 to 5 points lower. Nearly two-thirds started social media before age 13, many with three accounts, and a lot reported addiction-like symptoms, losing track of time, and seeing their schoolwork suffer.
A “Great Rewiring” Of Childhood
Psychologist Jonathan Haidt pulls these threads together in his book The Anxious Generation. He says smartphones and social media are not just tools; they are “rewiring” childhood. The frontal cortex, which helps with self-control and planning, is still developing during the teen years.
Haidt argues that constant pings, likes, and streaks train that system to chase quick hits instead of long-term goals. An article titled Smartphones Are Killing Kids’ Ability to Concentrate sums up his warning about “never-ending interruptions,” leaving lasting marks on attention.
The Gen Z decline paper supports this, linking always-online life to declining PISA scores and a weaker focus.
Deep Reading Is Being Crowded Out
The PISA 2022 report not only tracks basic reading. It also looks at deeper skills like understanding arguments and judging if a text is trustworthy. On those tasks, many 15-year-olds struggled more than earlier groups.
The Gen Z paper discusses a new “digital ecology” of short videos, endless feeds, and algorithm-picked content that trains the brain to skim. Neuroscience critiques it draws on the idea that when reading is interrupted by constant alerts, the brain learns to scan quickly rather than stay with a page.
Over the years, “book mode” has gotten less practice than “scroll mode,” and that shows up in tests.
Working Memory And Executive Control Under Strain
Working memory helps you hold bits of information in mind. Executive control helps you ignore distractions and switch tasks smoothly. These abilities sit at the core of what we call intelligence.
The Gen Z decline paper argues that heavy multitasking across apps, videos, and chats overloads these systems, especially in teens whose brains are still wiring up. It points to lab work on media multitasking by researchers like Eyal Ophir, in which heavy multitaskers performed worse on attention and control tests even when away from screens.
The authors compare it to clogged “mental RAM.” Too many switches and alerts leave less room for complex thoughts.
Motivation For Effortful Learning Is Dropping
The OECD also asks students how they feel about learning. In the PISA 2022 material, many teens report less joy in reading and less willingness to stick with tough problems than earlier groups.
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The Cognitive Decline of Generation Z links this to the design of apps like TikTok and Instagram. The authors describe them as “instant reward architectures” that shape the brain’s reward circuits. Short clips, likes, and streaks reward quick taps. Long study sessions do not.
Over time, that can make slow, effortful work feel harder and less appealing. Neuroscientists have shown that curiosity and grit support learning, so this shift in motivation might matter as much as raw IQ.
Sleep Deprivation Is Quietly Lowering Performance
The 2025 JAMA Network Open study using ABCD data did not just measure social media time. It also looked at sleep. NPR’s coverage notes that many 10 to 14-year-olds reported staying up late on apps and losing track of time.
Heavy social media use was tied to shorter sleep, worse mood, and lower scores in reading and memory. Other adolescent brain research, discussed in News India Times, shows that poor sleep harms attention, memory, and decision-making. For teens, those are the exact skills needed in class.
So late-night scrolling does not just make mornings rough. It quietly drags down the next day, thinking.
Growing Cognitive Inequality Within Gen Z
The Bratsberg and Rogeberg PNAS paper did something interesting. It split conscripts by ability level and found that IQ declines were stronger in lower-scoring groups. The reverse Flynn effect was not uniform across all individuals.
A U.S. study in Intelligence found a similar pattern in fluid IQ: older teens and lower-ability groups lost more ground. The authors who argue for a decline in Gen Z cite environmental gaps, such as school quality, home learning support, and how families handle screens.
OECD country notes show big score gaps within the same nation on PISA. Taken together, it suggests that some Gen Z teens are holding steady or even rising, while others are sliding further behind.
Tech Extends Minds While Obsoleting Old Skills
Marshall McLuhan, a media scholar, wrote that every technology is both an “extension” and an “amputation.” Phones extend memory, maps, and knowledge through search, GPS, and AI.
The Gen Z decline paper argues that they can weaken internal skills such as mental math, navigation, and fact recall because those tasks are now offloaded to devices. Neuroscience work on “cognitive offloading” shows that when we rely on tools to store and plan, the brain areas that used to do that get less practice.
So many Gen Z teens are great at using networked tools, but may be less trained at doing certain things entirely in their heads.
The Upside: Environment, Not Destiny
The good news is that these trends are not fate. The Pietschnig and Voracek meta-analysis on the Flynn effect argues that past increases in IQ mostly stemmed from environmental factors, such as better schooling and health.
The Bratsberg and Rogeberg PNAS paper makes the same point about the reversal: it is environmental, too. They show that even siblings born a few years apart can have different IQ paths if the world around them changes. The Gen Z decline authors lean on this and say that if tech, school, and culture can push scores down, smarter choices can push them up again.
That means this is a story about habits and systems, not about a “broken” generation.
Disclosure: This article was developed with the assistance of AI and was subsequently reviewed, revised, and approved by our editorial team.
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