Editor’s note: This article was originally published in 2025 and was updated in April 2026 to reflect Ideapod’s current editorial standards and The Sovereign Mind Framework.
A worrying trend is emerging globally: our cognitive skills are in decline.
From struggling to concentrate to losing problem-solving abilities, people of all ages are showing signs of decreased intelligence.
Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education, these patterns have been present since the mid-2010s, painting a concerning picture of a world growing less sharp by the day.
This decline in cognitive skills is visible across various benchmarks.
For example, the University of Michigan’s Monitoring the Future study has documented a significant drop in the concentration abilities of 18-year-olds in America.
Similarly, troubling data comes from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which measures the learning skills of 15-year-olds worldwide.
Both studies point to young people battling shorter attention spans and weakening critical thinking capabilities.
While it’s easy to point fingers at the COVID-19 pandemic for this situation, the evidence suggests that this problem predates the global crisis.
The decline in our cognitive abilities has been evident since at least the mid-2010s. This implies that the root cause of this issue goes beyond just educational disruption caused by the pandemic.
The changing landscape of information consumption
One potential culprit is our changing relationship with reading and how we consume information and media.
According to a 2022 report by the National Endowment for the Arts, only 37.6 percent of Americans said they’d read a novel or short story in the previous year – a noticeable drop from 41.5 percent in 2017, and 45.2 percent in 2012.
If fewer people are engaging with long-form written content, it could be contributing to the decline in problem-solving and reasoning abilities. Reading complex narratives requires sustained attention, pattern recognition, and the ability to hold multiple story threads in working memory—all cognitive skills that strengthen with practice and atrophy without it.
However, it’s not just reading that’s in decline. Recent data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development suggests that numeracy skills are also falling. In their 2023 survey, it was found that 34 percent of adults in the United States scored at the lowest levels of numeracy – up from 29 percent just a year ago.
As our interaction with numbers decreases in daily life due to reliance on technology, our ability to work with numbers inevitably suffers. When calculators handle basic arithmetic and algorithms manage complex calculations, we lose practice with numerical reasoning that once kept these mental pathways active.
The Financial Times stresses that our relationship with information at large is shifting.
Excessive “screen time” is linked to negative impacts on cognition, hurting verbal functioning in children and making it harder for college-age adults to focus and retain information.
This isn’t just speculation – studies show that high screen time can negatively impact verbal functioning in children and make it harder for young adults to concentrate and retain information.
The Sovereign Mind lens
Understanding cognitive decline through The Sovereign Mind framework reveals how we can reclaim our mental clarity in an age of digital overwhelm.
Unlearning: We must question the inherited belief that constant connectivity equals productivity or intelligence. The assumption that having immediate access to information makes us smarter has led us to outsource our memory and reasoning to devices, weakening our cognitive muscles in the process.
Restoration: Rebuilding cognitive strength requires deliberate attention training through activities that demand sustained focus—deep reading, complex problem-solving without digital aids, and practices that strengthen working memory. Internal steadiness comes from creating regular periods of mental quiet away from the constant stream of digital stimulation.
Defense: Protecting our cognitive clarity means setting boundaries against the shallow, fragmented information consumption that characterizes much of modern media. This includes resisting the pressure to multitask constantly and defending against platforms designed to capture and scatter our attention for profit.
The broader implications
The decline in cognitive abilities isn’t occurring in isolation—it’s reshaping how we solve problems, make decisions, and understand complex issues that affect our lives and society.
When critical thinking weakens, we become more susceptible to misinformation and oversimplified solutions to complex problems. The ability to hold nuanced perspectives, weigh evidence, and think through long-term consequences becomes compromised.
This cognitive shift also affects our capacity for innovation and creativity. Many breakthrough ideas emerge from the kind of sustained, deep thinking that requires extended periods of focused attention—precisely the cognitive skill that appears to be declining most rapidly.
Educational institutions are beginning to recognize these challenges, but systemic change takes time. Meanwhile, the pace of technological advancement and digital integration continues to accelerate, potentially widening the gap between our tools’ capabilities and our ability to use them wisely.
Rebuilding cognitive strength in a digital age
Reversing this trend requires intentional effort, but the human brain’s neuroplasticity means cognitive abilities can be restored and strengthened at any age.
Practice sustained reading daily. Start with just 20-30 minutes of uninterrupted reading of complex material—novels, long-form journalism, or academic papers. Gradually increase the duration as your attention span strengthens. Choose physical books when possible to reduce digital distractions.
Engage in mental math regularly. Calculate tips, split bills, or estimate quantities without immediately reaching for a calculator. This simple practice keeps numerical reasoning pathways active and builds confidence in working with numbers independently.
Create technology-free thinking spaces. Designate specific times and places where you engage in reflection, problem-solving, or creative work without any digital devices present. This allows your mind to practice the kind of sustained, undirected thinking that generates insights.
Learn something genuinely challenging. Take on a skill or subject that requires sustained effort and concentration—learning a musical instrument, studying a foreign language, or mastering a complex hobby. The struggle itself strengthens cognitive flexibility and persistence.
Question your information diet. Audit what you consume mentally throughout the day. Replace some portion of quick, shallow content with material that requires deeper engagement and critical thinking.
Practice single-tasking deliberately. Choose one cognitively demanding task and give it your complete attention for extended periods. Start with 45 minutes and work up to 2-3 hour blocks of focused work without switching between activities.
The path forward
It’s important to note that this doesn’t necessarily mean human intellect is permanently damaged. However, it does suggest that both our potential and execution of intelligence are experiencing a significant downturn.
The solution isn’t to abandon technology but to develop a more conscious relationship with it. We need to harness the benefits of digital tools while protecting and strengthening the uniquely human cognitive abilities that technology cannot replace.
Education systems must also evolve to address these challenges, emphasizing teaching methods that encourage critical thinking, problem-solving, and deep engagement with content, rather than mere information absorption.
After all, our collective intelligence is one of humanity’s most powerful tools — but only if we know how to use it effectively. The question isn’t whether we can reverse this cognitive decline, but whether we will choose to do so before it becomes irreversible.
How we answer this challenge will determine not just our individual mental capabilities, but the kind of society we build and the problems we’re able to solve in the decades ahead.
