The problem isn't "Tech" or "Laptops" or even "Tablets" ; but the addictive nonsense so-called "Tech-companies" spend all their efforts designing instead of trying to solve any actual problems...
this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2026
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IMO, in the US
- Common core replaced a better curriculum. Courses seem dumbed down and doesn't really prepare you anymore for college maths
- Grades were extremely inflated during covid because obviously students would not be motivated to study
- Grades are a lot lenient now. Most classes are passing people that would've previously been considered a fail
- AI was touted as a replacement for thinking and had repercussions when students started using it to just do all the work
- School is increasingly a for profit system now. Most colleges are increasing tuition without improving classes, and attracting enrollment by touting the hollywood college life experience.
- There's a lot of negativity in the younger generation, especially as those who see their older siblings fail to find anything in the job market. What's the point of college if it can't land you a good job?
Not USAian so can't comment on 1 and 5.
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And 2. I believe are too recent for this. That's more of a gen alpha thing, gen z already went through most of school before 2020/2022.
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Directly causes 6.
I believe 3. Is the root of all evil. And no, 5. Does not cause 3., since I went to a public university. In my case, 3. Was influenced by something similar to 5.: the political party in power encouraging their side of culture instead of focusing on education.
- Is not easy to fix though. Low standards create bad students, which lowers the standards even more. Creating a downward spiral that is at a pretty low point now. So low in fact that 4. Happened. If the standards were higher, AI wouldn't meet the standards, and only students that genuinely put in the effort would pass.
This is not in isolation though. The reason standards started to fall is because higher education became a NEED. As portrayed by the media, if you don't go for higher education, you will end up in a stagnant job that pays minimum wage. So everyone needed to get higher education, so there was a lot of pressure to let all these new students pass.
For sure. I love my kids, he's 15. He scores above average in the state/national tests (map ect). He can tell me the date, when the first bomb dropped in fallou 4, but has no fucking idea when the declaration of independence was signed, can't figure out how to cook anything from a box, can't name 10 countries in the world, and had zero idea how to do anything for himself.
The sad thing is I taught for 20 years in elementary level. All the have us teach is tests, ELA, Math, fuck science,art, geography,history. These kids are literally functionally mentally handicapped because they just want higher and higher test scores to jerk off to at the cost of kids who are functional.
first bomb dropped in fallout? what about ww2, japan? i have been hearing some people go through HS not knowing 1945 happened.
The history curriculum must be reworked as a FPS.
Unironically, I do think there is a great opportunity in education for video games.
Unfortunately, the historically inspired games I most prominently see are the likes of Assassin's Creed whose creativity clearly runs just as freely as all the slaves they sweep under the rug and who use the names of historical events and figures as faithfully as a CEO uses those of ethical values.
If these are the games children learn from, no wonder their education is as fucked up as the past these games present should be, but isn't.
the slaves they sweep under the rug
whilst I do agree that a game that touts itself as a historical simulator should try to be realistic, I can see how it might kill the enjoyability of the game or conversely lead to more perverse and sadistic actions from the player...
Yeah, but portraying Sparta as these noble heroes while tacitly omitting the fact that 80% of their populace was brutally enslaved is a bit irresponsible. Likewise, the Vikings politely killing guards but sparing civilians, taking only treasure neatly prepared in chests, without so much as an implication that the player character's band is exceptional in that respect, just glosses over the rape, murder and the slave trade that was such a lucrative business for the Vikings.
In the case of AC, they already have mechanisms for discouraging violence against civilians (desynchronization). I'm sure other games could come up with some other solution. If you want to discourage sadistic actions, establish some in-universe reason why the PC diverges from the norm, make that divergence clear, use it as a source of conflict with less progressive fractions to contrast their brutality. Just don't pretend it didn't happen.
I'm down for fantastic stories, I appreciate that the battles in these games are chaotic for the of action gameplay fun, I'm happy to suspend disbelief for entertainment.
But the past can hold valuable lessons; corrupting them enables those who would use it deceptively to push some political agenda.
Oh that's true, I forgot about the desync mechanic. That is a bit odd to just portray this 1 dimensional view of noble heroes. God of War has shown that the male power fantasy can still co-exist with the idea that the hero can do horrible things and still relate to the player, so I'm not sure why Ubisoft would prefer to bury their heads
Honestly, GoW 2018 was a really good commentary on the cycle of violence, processing trauma and self-loathing, emotional vulnerability... This is entirely tangential, but there's one moment where Kratos and Atreus look out at some beautiful view opening up before them. Kratos tentatively reaches out to put his hand on Atreus' shoulder, then hesitates, pulls it back. It broke my heart, breaks it over and over every time I think about it. The game undeniably is a power fantasy, but it hardly pulls punches in digging up Kratos' issues and flaws, including calling out that tough macho persona.
Anyway, on topic: I think the portrayal of Sparta in particular goes back to a circular issue of pop media. When depicting something, the audience usually approaches in with expectations and preconceptions shaped by other works. These works in turn call back to previous ones, partially built on the writings of 19th century historians belonging to their respective elites and accordingly biased to let the Spartan elites look good, drawing on source material written by ancient Greek elites that will also have identified more with the Spartiates than the Helots.
If I make a game or movie about Sparta, most people will involuntarily form some association with 300. If I then (accurately) present their warrior-elite as cruel bastards that largely eschew the arts, don't actually do much combat training, don't value individual prowess so much as coherence in the phalanx, have a very average track record in war; if I show them marching to Athens and back several times because they had no siegecraft to actually take it; if I point out their selling out Greece to the Persians...
I don't think players will enjoy it. That's not a fun Sparta. It doesn't stack up to the glorious expectations. There are no heroics, just disappointment.
Historians will love it, but critics will open with "if you're looking for the heroes of 300, you won't find them here" and players will close the tab.
In that light, a publisher primarily interested in money won't want to take the risk of honesty, if they care at all.
With the Vikings, the causes may differ (and I don't know the historiography here), but the result is similar: we've ended up with an image of big tough heathen warriors, possibly shaped more by the impressions of English monks whose churches they were burning or those Vikings that ended up converting to Christianity, and less by the of slaves that were dragged away or people killed in the raids. Again, Ubisoft won't want to risk kicking up a fuss by smearing that image.
Additionally, the factor you pointed out that you might not want to indulge player cruelty adds complexity to the question of how to frame those issues. Complexity requires more writing work, which costs money, and we're back at "a publisher primarily interested in money".
Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed the games, despite being aware of those issues. My complaint is rather with a media landscape that has painted an image nobody dares disrupt because it's not profitable. The education to enable such disruption would have to come from the outside, which leads to the initial problem: If games are the best way to convey that information, but the industry has backed itself into a corner where it can't easily do so, we're at a deadlock.
Then history would be the favorite subject by many pupils.
...In the pile with the other disappointments.
tosses it on top of X-men after Fall of X
You can't make such a statement about a whole generation without referring to a large cohort study.
67 skibbidy dapper.
The above is probably why.
I'm willing to bet most of us laughed at E so I'm not saying a damn thing lol
badger badger badger badger mushroom
snaaaaaaaake snaaaaaaake
Younger gen z are incredibly dumb this really isn't anything new or up for debate.
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As a society, we chose to only teach ONE FUCKING GENERATION how to use technology and then went "well, young people 'just understand' technology, we don't need to teach it anymore" and then somehow decided to just give all the kids a fucking tablet or laptop and assume they would LEARN THROUGH OSMOSIS I GUESS? Meanwhile we are defunding education across the country to absolutely shameful lows. (yes, I'm focused on the USA - I doubt "Cooney Horvath" is basing this broad generalization meant to scare people into buying his books on a study of ALL CHILDREN ALL OVER THE WORLD) AND THEN we let tech-bro-oligarchs decide EVERYTHING related to tech for two entire fucking decades and are just SHOCKED they did the thing that was best for profits, not the children (whose lives it was actively ruining for profit).
BUT YES, JARED HORNY CORVATH, your astute observations PROVE it was the fault of the LAPTOP that the next generations are "INHERANTLY DUMBER" (feels like a dog whistle, I dunno for what - but it's trying to justify something, I can feel it in my bones).
moreover, I'm convinced the entire reason my generation (millennials) turned out to be tech-savvy was because adults didn't understand it, were trying to control and curtail our usage, and we were mostly focused on finding ways to circumvent boomer and gen-x meddling in our usage.
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You gave a bunch of kids systems they're completely locked out of modifying and garden walled to shit and then act shocked when they learn nothing from them.
Jesus
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Mostly posting this because holy shit what a jump to blame schools distributing laptops being the cause and not psychologically addictive social media algorithms having a total domination of their attention
Definitely nothing to do with the fact that schools giving out laptops disproportionately benefits less wealthier families
Giving kids laptops was a great idea. Letting corporations use those laptops to brainwash our children was probably not.
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Nothing in USA rewards intelligence. Not education system, not employers, not government. Why develop a skill that isn't in demand? Would you want to develop medieval brickmaking just because some researcher is measuring for it?
I feel bad for the girl in the picture. She turns up every time the "technology makes kids dumbfucks" argument surfaces. Feel like ive seen her about 20 times in the last year.
Imagine being the face of that.
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I have a degree in computer engineering. I have been coding since the 80’s.
I learn better with pencil and paper. Most people do. Schools need to go back to that. Have computer labs but don’t do everything on computers all damn day.
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Students aren't being disadvantaged by the availability or even the reliance on technology.
They're being disadvantaged by not being taught (or in most cases even allowed) to interact with said technology in challenging and enlightening ways.
Would expect nothing better than such jumping to shallow conclusions from the chronically out of touch rag Fortune, though.
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