I was listening to episode 369 of Cal Newport's podcast today and found the deep dive interesting. Cal talked about the Flynn effect, the observed increase in IQ scores over time. While our IQs have increased over the generations, they have recently started to decline.

The reasons for the decline are speculated to be the rise of distracting media, starting with television, then radio, and finally the internet. While the increase in IQ has slowed over the generations, the decrease started around 2010, which is the same time smartphones became a household staple and social media came soon after.

This reminds me about what I wrote about a while ago, Losing the ability to read and think deeply where I talk about how much more difficult it is to read and understand a book than in the past.

Our brains are changing as the way we consume information changes. When reading a physical book, our brains are engaged with the words. The content is more thought-out and presented in a way that provides context as it explains its ideas. We don't get this in most modern media, especially short video clips and social media posts.

I would also argue that the rate at which we consume information is also harming us. We often don't give ourselves enough time to fully consider one idea before moving on to the next.

Here are some additional resources: