December 20, 2025
Brains vs. phones: who wins?
AI will make our children stupid
Parents panic, nerds roll eyes, and TikTok gets blamed for everything
TLDR: An op-ed warns AI will hollow out kids’ thinking by outsourcing basic skills, sparking a comment war. Readers split: some blame TikTok and a culture of convenience, others say AI can be a super-tutor—while fact-checkers challenge the scary IQ narrative. It matters because schools are rethinking exams and learning now.
An op-ed screams that AI will turn kids’ brains into mashed potatoes, arguing we’re building a “stupidogenic” world where writing doesn’t teach thinking because machines do the thinking for us. Cue the comment section: spwa4 shrugs, “Hasn’t TikTok already done that?” while others say the real villain isn’t AI—it’s our obsession with making life effortless. chneu nails the mood: AI is a tool; people are choosing laziness. Meanwhile, m4ck_ drops a sarcastic grenade about a “workless utopia” that only happens if tech giants run wild, and xnx delivers the line of the day: AI is a super-tutor for the curious, and a brain crutch for everyone else.
The article swings hard at IQ decline and the “Endarkenment,” but fact-checkers show up too: niceguy1827 points to research suggesting the Flynn effect hasn’t simply reversed, calling the doom-posting sloppy. Drama spikes around exams: should schools adapt or double down? One camp says AI-generated essays make students “ventriloquist’s dummies,” another says tools are only dangerous if you never learn to think.
There’s even geopolitics and parenting panic—spwa4 blames Western “brain drain,” and commenters debate Australia’s under-16 social media ban as a real-world test. The meme gods have spoken: “chimp vs iPhone” and “Endarkenment” become instant reaction gifs, while George Carlin quotes fuel the “people were already dumb” chorus. Internet court’s verdict: AI won’t make everyone stupid—some people were working on that themselves.
Key Points
- •The article claims attention spans have weakened over the last decade, with mobile phones and social media identified as primary causes.
- •It asserts that the reversal of the Flynn Effect signals an apparent decline in IQs and a deteriorating learning environment.
- •Australia is cited as banning under‑16s from ten major social platforms, presented as a test case for educational impact.
- •AI is described as enabling cognitive offloading that could render foundational skills obsolete, contributing to a “stupidogenic” society.
- •The piece argues exams should not be adapted to AI and emphasizes that writing as a process is essential for understanding.