--- title: "Human Intelligence Sharply Declining" description: "No, it's not just you — people really are, per a number of surveys, way less intelligent than they used to be. " date: "2025-03-16" modified: "2025-03-16" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/human-intelligence-declining-trends" categories: - "Health & Medicine" tags: - "critical thinking" - "human intelligence" - "intelligence" - "screen time" --- # Human Intelligence Sharply Declining ![No, it's not just you — people really are, per a number of surveys, way less intelligent than they used to be. ]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* No, it's not just you — people really are less smart than they used to be. As the [*Financial Times* reports](), assessments show that people across age groups are having trouble concentrating and losing reasoning, problem-solving, and information-processing skills — all facets of the hard-to-pin-down metric that "intelligence" is supposed to measure. These results, the *FT* reports, are gleaned from benchmarking tests that track cognitive skills in teens and young adults. From the University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future study [documenting concentration difficulties]() of 18-year-old Americans to the [Programme for International Student Assessment]() (PISA) that measures the learning skills of 15-year-olds around the world, years of research suggest that young people are struggling with reduced attention spans and weakening critical thinking skills. Though there has been a demonstrably steep decline in cognitive skills since the COVID-19 pandemic due to the educational disruption it presented, these trends have been in evidence since at least the mid-2010s, suggesting that whatever is going on runs much deeper and has lasted far longer than the pandemic. Obviously, there's no single answer as to why people seem to be struggling with cognitive skills, but one key indicator is the sharp decline in reading and the world's changing relationship to the way we consume information and media. In 2022, for example, the [National Endowment for the Arts found]() that just 37.6 percent of Americans said they'd read a novel or short story in the year prior — a share down from 41.5 percent in 2017 and 45.2 percent in 2012. It would be easy enough to blame this decline on people reading less (and, presumably, scrolling online brainrot more). But according to [2023 results]() from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the same international consortium that puts out the PISA survey, 34 percent of adults in the United States scored at the lowest levels of numeracy, which essentially means that they lack the ability to work with numbers. A year prior, that share was just 29 percent. Beyond changes in media consumption and the mediums in which we take it, it appears, as the *FT* notes, our relationship to information generally is shifting too. While there certainly are ways to use tech that [don't cause harm to cognition](), studies show that "screen time" as we know it today [hurts verbal functioning]() in children and makes it harder for college-age adults to [concentrate and retain information](). There isn't any reason to suggest that human *intellect* has been harmed, the publication counters — but in "both potential and execution," our intelligence is definitely on the downturn. **More on intelligence:** [*People With This Level of Education Use AI the Most at Work*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()