Thank God more and more school boards, individual schools and universities effectively banning cell phone/headphones in classrooms. Why Because Gen Z (born c. 2000-2013), and even more so, Gen Alpha (born c. 2013-2025) can’t read or write, and they don’t want to learn how. 

Teachers are mass-quitting by the thousands and taking to social media to describe their experiences in the classroom (check out “Teacher Therapy” on YouTube, for example). Teachers cite illiteracy, behaviour and discipline issues as their motivations, with many adding the cry: “Technology has ruined education!” 

By “technology,” do these teachers mean ed-tech in the classroom or children’s constant use of technology? Both, but mostly the latter. Today’s younger generations’ brains are wired differently from the playpen onward to passively accept and prefer whatever colourful screens and blasting audio present to them. Anything requiring silence, thinking, critical analysis, synthesizing, remembering, problem-solving is too laborious. 

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The young eye, brain and ear will always choose what is moving and shiny, the path of least resistance. Unless parents teach self-discipline, impulse control and a balanced media diet (which includes media fasting, i.e., lots of active, unplugged, offline time). These “tablet kids will not only be robbed of their childhood, but of their cognitive skills. A recent news headline lamented that today’s youth are the first generation to score lower on cognitive and IQ tests than their parents. Unfettered, addictive use of media technology is stunting young people’s personal growth.

Under the growing wave of school tech bans, computers might be allowed but strictly for schoolwork. The young themselves, after the initial shock, protesting and withdrawal symptoms, are usually grateful, and are preferring device-free learning and engagement. There is even a slow return to physical textbooks rather than e-books.

Why don’t more young people want to make the arduous, years-long effort to master the written word? They say they don’t need to, and on one hand, they’re right. “There’s an app for that.” “AI can do that for me.”

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AI can read onscreen text to you. You can dictate to software, or you can even let AI write something in your name. But how, then, will you create something truly original, truly yours, truly an expression of your own mind, will and heart? Studies show handwriting connects to the brain on a deeper level than even typing, and voice-to-text is even further removed from our connection to the meaning and ownership of words. 

And why would you want to relinquish something so human, so personal, such a collective and individual achievement, a source of enlightenment and enjoyment for something so impersonal, shadowy, mind-dulling and disempowering? Why let AI do something that will rob us of our peculiarly human agency? In order to “free us up”? Free us up for what?

It may sound counterintuitive, but many who study linguistics, semiotics, epistemology and education itself say that we often need to be able to express ourselves in speech just to know what we’re thinking. The more vocabulary we have to express ourselves, the richer our thought will be. One of the best ways to increase vocabulary, and know how to use it well in context, is by reading. The developing child has a certain window of learning and practicing speech, becoming proficient in literacy, acquiring a love for and a habit of reading—and if that window is missed, it’s much more difficult to acquire later in life.

So why does it matter if Johnny can’t read or write?1. It’s a regression and deconstruction of civilization.2. It’s a disconnect from the people of the past. Even though what they wrote can be digitized and read to you—by a non-human--are young people actually using technology to listen to history, the classics, etc.? Illiteracy is a break with the past instead of building on the past, a breaking of faith with our forbears, instead of grasping the torch passed from them.3. Literacy is freedom from total dependence on others and on machines. Literacy is being able to trust more in yourself, rather than blindly trust digital platforms and content. Just as we need back up sources of energy when the electricity goes down, we need the printed word, books. Facility with language in its spoken and written forms makes us the human, us the master, and the technology our servant.

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Sr. Helena Raphael Burns, fsp, is a Daughter of St. Paul. She holds a Masters in Media Literacy Education and studied screenwriting at UCLA. HellBurns.com