OBSERVATIONS & OTHER ACCIDENTS

The Decline of Thinking in the Age of Scrolls.

Even before I started writing this piece, this morning, I took a “spin” through Instagram and saw a video by a girl whom I consider to be saying smart things, addressing yet another topic I consider smart. In reality, in my opinion, it was something obvious, natural, unquestionable. But it’s 2025, the Internet, where anything is possible. She was questioning how it was possible for those parents — and there are many — to make their social media the primary stage for exposing their children. Back in 2019, I wrote about this very same topic for Máxima. Even then, I thought it was scandalous, a true lack of awareness.

“Talking about sharenting is talking about a silent violation of privacy: an innocent photograph can become a target, be used without authorisation, circulate in inappropriate contexts. Once online, control is lost. The digital footprint of children grows without them having chosen to exist.”

“Turning the lives of children into public narratives can be done with love — but that does not eliminate the risks. Between the pride of showing and the need for validation, the line is thin. The digital world is full of sick minds, and a single screenshot is enough for the private to cease to exist.”

Today, I don’t know what to think. The limits of human stupidity were surpassed long ago, and the example of children is just a microcosm of this absence of awareness and of so little willingness to use the brain — fundamentally, for what it’s meant to do.

And perhaps this is not (just) an impression. Multiple studies over the past decade paint a concerning picture. From the University of Michigan’s Monitoring the Future study to the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the data shows a sharp decline in cognitive skills, particularly among younger generations. Teens and young adults are struggling with basic cognitive tasks like maintaining focus, reasoning, and processing information.

As the Financial Times reports, young people are spending less time reading and more time scrolling through digital screens. This shift in media consumption is not harmless. A 2022 study by the National Endowment for the Arts found that only 37.6 percent of Americans read a novel or short story in the past year — down from 41.5 percent in 2017 and 45.2 percent in 2012. We are feeding our brains with micro-doses of entertainment, sacrificing depth for reflex, attention for dopamine hits.

In other words, the downward curve of our cognitive faculties is not merely anecdotal. It coincides with the viral rise of TikTok dances, endless reels, and a culture of bite-sized distraction. Measurable cognitive decline, as some researchers call it, is less about intelligence itself and more about abandoning the very act of thinking. Whereas in the 20th century we celebrated the Flynn Effect — the rise of average IQ by three points per decade — now we are witnessing its reverse. An intellectual backslide. In the early 2000s, the curve turned. Not because we were born less intelligent; simply because we stopped using what we have.

And here lies the real danger: the same screens that are turning young adults into attention-deficit zombies are also shaping childhood itself. In a world where sharenting is the norm, where children’s lives are broadcast as content, the decline in cognitive engagement starts before the first tooth, before the first word. We are raising a generation whose first download is anxiety, whose first language is the scroll, whose first teachers are algorithms.

We are not just getting dumber. We are training ourselves — and our children — to stop thinking. To outsource memory to chatbots, navigation to GPS, human interaction to screens. And all the while, we celebrate every like, every share, every digital footprint as a triumph.

This is the age of intellectual surrender. And we are applauding it.