Are we really all becoming more stupid?

Among other things, I write for a living. And to write, I naturally read, though far less than I should (or would like to). Yet, the other day, I realized how often I struggle to find the right words to express my thoughts in a way that's just a bit more refined and effective than what I’d write in a WhatsApp message. I've lost my words, I thought. My brain has gotten lazy. And apparently, I’m not the only one. As reported by the Financial Times, some OECD tests have revealed that the average ability to reason and solve new problems continued to grow until around 2013 but has been declining ever since. This particular study focuses on teenagers, but the real news is that the adult situation isn’t much better. According to the OECD, most countries experiencing skill declines—including ours—have seen a deterioration in linguistic and mathematical abilities across different age groups. This means we’re increasingly struggling with concentration, reasoning, reading comprehension, and basic calculations. And as a result, with solving everyday problems.

How and what do we write?

We write very little, and when we do, it’s usually short messages where we turn a blind eye to grammar and completely ignore punctuation (for some reason, a period at the end of a sentence now feels too abrupt). At best, we draft work emails, whose language has become so formulaic and stiff that they’re more suited for memes than actual brain exercise. The rest of the time, we consume information without even having to search for it: we’ve moved from finite pages—physical or digital—to infinite, constantly updating feeds. We don’t interact with people anymore, just with their content. We get answers without even needing to ask questions, and in doing so, we’re losing our ability to be critical, analytical, and curious.

"Human intelligence is one of the most fragile things in nature," wrote sociologist Neil Postman in 1988. "It doesn’t take much to distract, suppress, or even annihilate it." Back then, Reagan was in the Oval Office, and the main concern was the rise of image-based communication—mainly through television—at the expense of words. Yet today, even images don’t seem to be enough for us. I know more than one person who can only watch an entire movie without checking their phone by going to the cinema, where certain etiquette rules still apply. In fact, showrunners of recent TV series—as well as Netflix executives—are well aware that they have more than one competitor vying for viewers' attention: not just sleep, but also the ever-distracting social media. We scroll to kill time, to escape, to live in a reality that feels more exciting than our own. But we always end up back where we started.

Italians don’t read (and neither does anyone else)

In the past, one of the best ways to build parallel worlds and travel without moving was to read a book. Now, we rarely do that—or at least, less and less. According to Eurostat data reported by Sole 24 Ore in August, Italy ranks third to last in Europe for reading habits, with only Cyprus and Romania scoring worse. Compared to the EU average of 52.8%, only 35.4% of Italians say they’ve read a book in the past year. And let’s not even talk about how we consume news: fragmented, loud, and increasingly polarizing. The average person won’t read a full article anymore; at best, they’ll glance at the headline and maybe the social media caption. End of story. This has made us more conspiratorial, distrustful, and unable to engage with opinions different from our own. We struggle to have constructive discussions and—why not?—to change our minds. This isn’t just making us dumber; it’s making us more vulnerable, more susceptible to manipulation by extreme political forces and demagogues with megalomaniac tendencies—like Elon Musk.

Curiosity as an antidote

Being curious, informed, and able to decipher even the most complex messages is essential in a world that seems to be flattening itself out. Everything appears simpler, but it’s actually just oversimplified—packaged for quick consumption before moving on to the next topic. It’s all about quantity now—our time is measured in daily screen time—and we should strive to return to quality. We need to re-learn how to take the necessary time to explore, analyze, understand, and even contradict—others, but especially ourselves. And then, we must take responsibility for passing that mindset on to future generations.