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Comment and Mind

No need to stop the 'brain rot': Modern kids aren't less intelligent

The idea that the rise of tech means today's young people are less intelligent than previous generations is rife – but wrong, says neuroscientist Dean Burnett

By Dean Burnett

16 April 2025

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Elaine Knox

George Orwell once wrote that every generation “imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it”.

Today, the second part of that observation feels more astute than ever, as we face constant concerns about the ways modern technology is supposedly destroying the minds and cognitive abilities of children and young people.

For decades, scientists have noted the occurrence of the Flynn effect, which essentially describes how, in terms of performance on various tests, each generation is more intelligent than the previous one. In recent years, this…

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