The following article was written by Dr. Matthew Fleming.

Admit it, we have all been on the big tech bandwagon for years. And to be fair, educators have been a prime target for tech marketing since the days of BASIC, and MS-DOS. (If you were born after 1985, ask someone to explain.) But the marketing went into overdrive in the last two decades, and since there seemed little downside, schools went all in, typically with the rationale that we would be preparing “21st century learners” for the world of work. And there was truth to that. No one gets far in most careers anymore without a healthy tech skillset.

But how much of our current technology use is really work related? Despite the fact that most of us spend about a third or more of every 24 hours at work, we spend almost the same amount of time on our screens for personal use. According to a recent PBS report, white collar workers in the U.S. spend around 100 hours a week on screens. Remote workers spend almost twice that amount. And — school site administrators notwithstanding — relatively few desk workers spend more than 50 hours at work each week. For our students, the American Psychological Association reports that the amount of recreational screen time outside of school averages more than eight hours per day. If we add in screen time in the classroom, that number can increase by 4.5 to 6.5 hours a day. So what is all of this screen time doing to us? The answer is a lot, and very little of it good.

One common area where we are seeing significant problems is in regard to sleep. The National Institutes of Health states that Americans lose an average of 30 to 60 minutes of sleep per night to scrolling on their mobile phones. They further found that late-night screen use increases the risk of insomnia by almost two-thirds. The tricks played by so-called “blue light” from screens impacts teenagers to a similar degree, but it also increases their wakefulness more than for adults, and makes it harder for them to quiet their minds and get any sleep at all. Furthermore, the problems increase over time due to the phenomenon of “time distortion” where individuals lose track of how much time they are scrolling. According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, nearly 90 percent of us keep our phones bedside, and a similar number admit to binging and staying up far too late. This is catastrophic for young, developing brains, and literally short-circuits the formation of parallel dispersed neural networks that aid in learning retention and recall, which along with many other factors of cognitive function, is processed during the sleep cycle.

But it gets even worse. The journal Frontiers in Cognition published a study in 2023 that reviewed dozens of other studies on this topic. The authors found that digital learning, specifically with interactive applications, had the ability to enhance some creativity and digital literacy, and even in a few cases helped students learn on their own. However, the high amount of screen time overall contributed to significant social-emotional challenges, decreased social interaction, lower academic performance and reduced attention span. In adolescents and young adults, the findings were more disturbing. The cognitive benefits decreased. Critical thinking ability was markedly decreased, and it should come as no surprise: mental and behavioral health issues were exponentially higher. This is serious and disturbing. But recent studies are shedding light on even greater concerns.

In 2022, an article in the high impact Journal of Integrative Neuroscience posited that the so-called “internet generation” would face higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias in adulthood. More recently, this prediction has found support from science. A study published in 2024 found that greater screen time was highly correlated with neuroinflammation markers in the blood chemistry of young and early middle-aged adults. This has been confirmed by more recent studies that indicate the problem is increasing among young people and adults in the U.S. And while there is nuance to these findings, namely that context of the screen usage is important, there is no longer any doubt among neuroscientists that the phenomenon our students call “brain rot” is a reality, according to a recent review of studies.

The conclusion is that we may be teaching the first generation of Americans who will be placed in memory care facilities by their parents. This is sobering news. And we have a professional duty to acknowledge it. The research is pointing out that limited, interactive, use of technology that is carefully aligned with learning goals can be helpful, especially in our younger learners. But we now also know that it is not a good practice to have our students working on screens all day. It is time to pause, reflect, research, and redirect our practices before it goes too far, and a generation is lost.

Shaleha, R., & Roque, N. (2025). From screens to cognition: A scoping review of the impact of screen time on cognitive function in midlife and older adults. Digital health, 11, 20552076251343989.

Shanmugasundaram M and Tamilarasu A (2023) The impact of digital technology, social media, and artificial intelligence on cognitive functions: a review. Front. Cognit. 2:1203077. doi: 10.3389/fcogn.2023.1203077

Verma A, Kumar A, Chauhan S, Sharma N, Kalani A, Gupta PC. Interconnections of screen time with neuroinflammation. Mol Cell Biochem. 2025 Mar;480(3):1519-1534. doi: 10.1007/s11010-024-05123-9. Epub 2024 Sep 24. PMID: 39316324.

Matthew Fleming, Ph.D., is a former administrator who now teaches at a continuation high school and is a professor of psychology. He holds a doctorate in cognitive psychology.