“According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), there were more than 8.58 billion mobile subscriptions in use worldwide in 2022, compared to a global population of 7.95 billion halfway through the year.” (weforum.org)

“In a blistering TikTok rant that has captivated more than a million viewers, a 26-year-old high school English teacher has delivered a raw and unfiltered farewell to the classroom - and to a generation she says has been consumed and crippled by technology.

‘I’m actually leaving the profession. I am quitting. Friday is my last day,’ said Hannah Maria, a 10th-grade teacher who claims she simply couldn’t take it anymore. ‘This will not be my classroom after Friday.’

In a nine-and-a-half minute spiel recorded during her planning period, Hannah tells the camera that her desks are no longer filled with minds eager to learn but with students scrolling TikTok, playing games, and copying assignments through AI tools like ChatGPT.

‘I really, really, really want to talk about… how technology is ruining education,’ she declares, her voice full of frustration and resignation.

Hannah, who has 2,600 followers, teaches in a district where every student from sixth to twelfth grade is issued an iPad. Far from helping students, she believes the device has become a weight that is dragging down the standards of education in America.

‘These kids don’t know how to read,’ she says flatly. ‘Because they’ve had things read to them, or they can just click a button and have something read out loud. Their attention spans are waning. Everything is high stimulation. They can scroll in less than a minute.’

Hannah continues to paint a grim picture of the modern classroom: Teenagers who refuse to write even a paragraph, who throw tantrums when asked to handwrite an assignment, who beg to ‘just type it’ - not to save time or effort but to copy and paste answers from the internet or use AI to do the thinking for them.

‘They want to use [technology] for entertainment. They don’t want to use it for education,’ she says.

She believes the behavior of her high schoolers is only part of the problem. What worries her is the sense that this generation, raised on screens, simply doesn’t care about anything whether it be learning, literacy or even the basics of society.

‘They don’t care about making a difference in the world. They don’t care how to write a resume or a cover letter. They just have these devices in their hands that they think will get them through the rest of their life.’

‘I don’t have a lot of faith in some of these kids that I teach,‘ Hannah admits, before clarifying that she has taught ‘several’ bright students across her classes.

But for many others she says, ‘older generations have failed them’ by devaluing the basics - reading, writing, arithmetic - and replacing them with high-tech distractions masquerading as innovation.

Her solution is a drastic one - ban technology from schools.

‘I think we need to cut off technology from these kids probably until they go to college,’ she says. ‘Call me old-fashioned, but I just want you to look at the test scores.
…Look at the literacy rates.
…Look at the statistics.
From when students didn’t use technology… to now.

‘If you can’t read and you don’t care to read… you’re never going to have real opinions. You’ll never understand why laws and government matter. You’ll never know why you have the right to vote.’

She pleads with decision-makers - school boards, superintendents - to look at the data that includes plunging test scores, the national literacy decline, the growing dependence on technology, before making her case for all things analog.

‘You’ve got to start getting rid of the technology and bringing back the things that worked.’

‘My students won’t even Google now that AI is around. Google means looking at a few websites while AI just tells them.’” (dailymail.co.uk)

“On a recent commute to work, I texted my distant family about our fantasy baseball league, which was nice because I felt connected to them for a second. Then I switched apps and became enraged by a stupid opinion I saw on X, which I shouldn’t be using anymore due to its advanced toxicity and mind-numbing inanity. Many minutes passed before I was able to stop reading the stupid replies to the stupid original post and relax the muscles of my face.

This is the duality of the phone: It connects me to my loved ones, and sometimes I think it’s ruining my life. I need it and I want it, but sometimes I hate it and I fear it. Many people have to navigate this problem — and it may be at its worst for parents, who’ve recently been drowned in media suggesting that smartphones and social media might be harming their children’s mental health, but who also want their kids to enjoy technology’s benefits and prepare themselves for adult life in a digital age.” (aol.com)

“In recent years there has been a huge increase in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, both in terms of the number of products available on the market and their use by consumers. It is clear there are advantages to the use of AI, but there is still so much that is not yet known about these tools.

Children using AI are potentially exposing themselves to new risks of harm online, and their lives may be reshaped more fundamentally by them in the future. Given its recent emergence, it is unsurprising that the actual impact of AI on children’s lives is still not fully understood. Ofcom tracks children’s online and media usage, and have found that 59% of 7-17 year old and 79% of 13-17 year old internet users in the UK have used a generative AI tool in the last year. Snapchat’s My AI was the most commonly used platform (51%), and there was no difference by gender in the number of children using these tools.

We are yet to understand the true impact of these tools on children’s lives. However, I consider that AI demonstrates the problem of emerging technologies that are not fully covered by the existing regulatory regime and how children can suffer as a result.

How Children Are Using AI In Their Daily Lives

Artificial Intelligence, also known as AI, has been a hot topic over the last year but isn’t always fully understood. AI essentially refers to a collection of technologies that allow computers to perform tasks that are similar to human intelligence, such as problem-solving, decision-making, data analysis and creativity. But whether in the school environment or in their personal lives, artificial intelligence is slowly becoming a part of each child’s everyday life.

1. Personalised learning

Many apps that young people use for learning, such as Khanmigo and Duolingo, use AI to tailor the learning experience for the user. This means that they can adapt to strengths, weaknesses and pace. These apps adapt in real time to keep users engaged.

2. Homework aid

Young people frequently turn to AI for support with their homework tasks. Tools like Grammarly are free to install and improve writing and grammar. Tools like Quizlet are popular to aid revision while apps such as Photomath allow the user to take a photo of a maths problem, which AI solves with step-by-step instructions.

3. Editing

Photos uploaded onto a young person’s social media may have been edited to look perfect. Samsung and Google phones now have AI editing built into them and Apple is releasing more AI photo tools this autumn.

4. Creating

From AI-created music on platforms such as Suno (where some of their tracks have millions of plays) to AI art and enhanced creative tools on platforms such as Canva, AI is allowing young people to access their creative side more than ever. Interestingly, this is the area of AI technology that some people have the biggest misgiving about, as they feel it shouldn’t be used as part of the creative process.

5. Chatbots

Today, young people regularly engage with chatbots as part of their daily routines. They use chatbots to seek information, create content using sophisticated language models like ChatGPT, or seek advice from platforms like Snapchat. Platforms such as Character AI enable young people to converse with AI versions of famous or fictional characters. With many chatbots now employing realistic voice models, these interactions will soon transition from text-based to voice-based conversations with AI.” (childrenscommissioner.gov.uk)

“Children and young people use many different social media apps and sites. The most popular are Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok.

There are lots of benefits to social networking. Children can stay connected to friends and family. They can also learn many different things, from make-up or gaming tutorials to making slime, or how to create their own videos. Like most things, there can be negatives too. For children and young people there are risks that you should be aware of, to help keep your child safe on social media. What are the risks of social media for children?

Oversharing

Children and young people can sometimes feel pressure to share a lot of personal information online. Remind them that they shouldn’t share private things, such as:

• personal information, like names, phone numbers, links to other social media accounts or their school
• live or frequent locations
• other people’s personal information
• links to join private group chats
• photos of themselves
• photos of their body, such as sexual photos or videos.

It’s a good idea to explain to your child that, if someone starts asking them personal questions, or suggests that they speak on a different messaging platform, then they should come and tell you.

Sharing their location

Many apps and games give users the option to share their location. Consider helping your children think about how and when they’re sharing this information. Some of the ways they may be likely to share location include:

• tagging photos with the geo-location
• checking into venues
• sharing journeys
• location settings on your child’s device
• sharing images or videos that contain street names.

If shared publicly, their location could be seen by someone they don’t know. People could find out where they live or go to school, allowing an accurate picture of their daily routine to be built up. All these things increase risk to children, of cyberbullying, stalking or unwanted contact (from friends or others) or becoming a target.

Talking to people they don’t know

Some social networking sites promote connecting users to chat with people they don’t know. This puts young people at risk of grooming or online forms of abuse, along with the risk of moving the conversation to other platforms or meeting up offline. You should be aware of this across all social media.

Sending or receiving inappropriate content

Young people can feel pressured into sharing content that could be harmful to themselves or others. This could be in the form of sexting or sharing nudes, or it might be sharing memes and images of others without their consent – which can be a form of cyberbullying.

DMs (direct messages) can be used to share very quickly and they have no control over how the image is shared further.

Many platforms have features such as disappearing messages – where an image or text will only show for a certain amount of time for the recipient before deleting. This might make users feel they can share more, but the recipient can still screenshot and forward the content to others.

Unrealistic sense of body image or reality

With so many influencers and users sharing photos, children can feel under pressure to conform to the ‘ideal’ body and lifestyle. It’s important to talk about positive body image with them. It can be helpful to encourage children to question what they see online and understand that what others post is a curated version of their life.

Obsessive focus on likes and comments

Children may become focused on how many likes or comments their posts attract. This can leave them feeling that they aren’t good enough, or not as popular as someone else. Try to help them remember that likes aren’t everything. Instagram has an option to turn off likes on posts – that may help to ease the pressure.” (nspcc.org.uk)

“Fewer children are able to use scissors or grip pencils properly, according to a survey of teachers, amid fears young pupils are increasingly struggling to master fine motor skills. The poll found that 77 per cent of respondents had seen a deterioration in the last five years. Some feared this meant pupils would not be able to access creative parts of the curriculum. The survey, commissioned by an art class provider Art-K, was representative of teachers across the country.

More than three quarters — 76 per cent — agreed that art education is not prioritised in schools, with 18 per cent reporting that they spend no time at all teaching art in an average week. Only 12 per cent of teachers managed to provide more than 60 minutes of art education weekly and only 26 per cent of primary school teachers believed students are reaching their artistic potential within the present curriculum.

Seventy-one per cent of the 560 teachers in the YouGov survey believed there was a direct relationship between art activities, handwriting development and mathematical problem-solving abilities, and 81 per cent said better art education would lead to enhanced wellbeing among pupils.” (thetimes.com)

“A few weeks ago a widely circulated blog by an anonymous university professor featured the discouraging observation that ‘most of our students are functionally illiterate’. ‘This,’ the writer added, ‘is not a joke.’ Literacy, one might optimistically have assumed, is a basic consequence (or even cause) of a university education.

But this is the age of universal, non-stop digital distraction. A similar report in the Atlantic magazine found that many undergraduates at even prestigious institutions are incapable of reading books all the way through (a complaint regularly echoed by acquaintances working in academia).

And last week an investigation into students using ChatGPT to write their essays (the practice is now basically ubiquitous), published in New York magazine, quoted the opinion of one professor that ‘massive numbers of students are going to emerge from university with degrees, and into the workforce, who are essentially illiterate.’

It is possible, of course, to take such complaints as the immemorial grumblings of crusty dons about doltish, indolent youth. But unusually, the students seem to agree. ‘I spend so much time on TikTok,’ one undergraduate reported. ‘Hours and hours, until my eyes start hurting, which makes it hard to plan and do my schoolwork.’ Fortunately, ‘with ChatGPT, I can write an essay in two hours that normally takes 12.’

Frankly, if you never read and never write, functional illiteracy is not a very surprising fate. We may come to see these articles as reports from the frontier of the next public health crisis, albeit one that concerns not our physical but our cognitive fitness.

Thanks to AI, many people may soon find their jobs are significantly less intellectually demanding — the cognitive equivalent of moving from strenuous manual labour on a building site to a desk job. And mentally, just as much as gastronomically, you are what you eat. Instagram, Twitter and TikTok are the intellectual equivalents of what have recently been termed ultra-processed foods.” (thetimes.com)

“Some translate this section as ‘…Many shall apostatize’. The Septuagint, Swete’s edition, volume iii, page 572 (A) reads heos an apomanosin = ‘till many shall have gone raving mad’.” (hermeneutics.stackexchange.com)