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Maybe we are just not good at thinking any more
The damaging impact of passively scrolling social media does not just stop at reading test scores. The loss of reasoning ability makes it harder to make sound decisions in a complicated world.
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Older people have always complained about “kids these days”, but this time we have empirical data to show that the observations are true.
ST PHOTO: GIN TAY
David Brooks
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You might have seen the various data points suggesting that Americans are losing their ability to reason.
The trend starts with the young. The percentage of fourth graders who score below basic in reading skills on the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests is the highest it has been in 20 years. The percentage of eighth graders below basic was the highest in the exam’s three-decade history. A fourth grader who is below basic cannot grasp the sequence of events in a story. An eighth grader can’t grasp the main idea of an essay or identify the different sides of a debate.
