I teach 18 year olds who range in reading levels from preschool to college, but the majority of them are in the lower half that range. I am devastated by what AI and social media have done to them. My kids don’t think anymore. They don’t have interests. Literally, when I ask them what they’re interested in, so many of them can’t name anything for me. Even my smartest kids insist that ChatGPT is good “when used correctly.” I ask them, “How does one use it correctly then?” They can’t answer the question. They don’t have original thoughts. They just parrot back what they’ve heard in TikToks. They try to show me “information” ChatGPT gave them. I ask them, “How do you know this is true?” They move their phone closer to me for emphasis, exclaiming, “Look, it says it right here!” They cannot understand what I am asking them. It breaks my heart for them and honestly it makes it hard to continue teaching. If I were to quit, it would be because of how technology has stunted kids and how hard it’s become to reach them because of that.
I think it’s a long-standing problem, yes, but there’s no contesting that AI has demonstrably escalated the issue in a significant way.
And on the back of COVID where students got away with letting assignments falter or not showing up to things. There is a lasting effect of that as well and then the easy solution comes along. It’s a powder keg.
I think you’re onto something important there. COVID broke all daily routine habits, good and bad. I could imagine that resetting these kids’ ideas of what it means to learn, at exactly the wrong time.
I’m sure it has, my main thought is this focus on AI is essentially deflecting from systemic issues and without actually addressing those the problem will continue to get worse with or without AI.