Under 40's Declining Memory
===========================

A Large US Study Finds Memory Decline Surge in Young People

Cognitive Disability
====================

Has social media engineered the collapse of the human mind? The
answer is yes, if we believe the results of a measurable scientific
research of this catastrophe, which was recently published in the
journal Neurology. The paper, by Ka-Ho Wong and colleagues, is a
data-rich examination of 4.5 million survey responses. Its finding is
that "serious difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making
decisions" is no longer a fringe complaint, but a surging public
health crisis.

Those 4.5 million survey responses were gathered over a decade
through the CDC's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Its
outcome is clear on the data, more and more younger people have:
serious difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions
because of a physical, mental, or emotional condition.

The numbers are unambiguous. From 2013 to 2023, the age-adjusted
prevalence of such "cognitive disability" in U.S. adults rose from
5.3 to 7.4 percent. But the real shock lies in who changed. Among
adults 18 to 39 years old, the supposed cognitive prime, the
prevalence nearly doubled, from 5.1 to 9.7 percent. It climbed across
every racial and economic line. It tripled even among the
highest-income bracket, those meant to be buffered by privilege.

Cognitive disability <https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!_305!,f_auto,q_auto:good, fl_progressive:steep/ https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2F images%2F7356a1e3-8d18-46bc-aeb5-27e89265835f_642x346.jpeg>

This being said the authors do acknowledge that "Younger adults,
racial minorities, and socioeconomically disadvantaged groups are disproportionately affected, highlighting the urgent need for
targeted interventions." And, with scientific rigor, the researchers
"excluded participants who self-reported depression ... to better
identify non-psychiatric cognitive impairment."

Because what they have found is not a disorder hidden in a
subpopulation. It is the first measurable biological signature of a civilization rewiring its own nervous system.

Disattention
============

For fifteen years we have been building, at planetary scale, a
machinery of disattention: social platforms that auction attention by
the millisecond; search engines that outsource memory; feeds that
weaponize emotion for engagement. The result is an economy that grows
in inverse proportion to our capacity to think. Now the data have
arrived like a coroner's note. The youngest generation, those who
have never known a world before the machine, are reporting that they
can no longer concentrate, remember, or decide.

The authors, although cautious, propose the polite hypotheses. Social isolation. Increased reliance on technology. Maybe "greater
awareness" of cognitive problems. One almost applaud the decorum and understatements. A "greater awareness" of forgetting, what a phrase.
As though we are choosing to notice that our minds are leaking.
People are not more willing to report it; they are less able to
conceal it.

The study itself betrays the timeline. The statistically significant
rise began in 2016, four years before lockdowns, before "long COVID."
The pandemic did not cause the decline; it simply sealed us inside
the apparatus that was already doing the work.

And what an apparatus. We have built a trillion-dollar system to
externalize thought, then act astonished when the interior world
collapses. To name "reliance on technology" as a risk factor is like
diagnosing "submersion" in a drowning victim.

What the paper records is not a warning but a postscript, the data
catching up to what daily life has been telling us for years.

Hovering Mind
=============

A friend of mine, a novelist, disciplined, once able to lose herself
for hours in text, told me recently that she can no longer read a
book. Her eyes move, but the mind skitters. "It's as though my
attention has been trained to hover," she said, "like a cursor that
can't click." The Wong et al. study gives her condition a
bureaucratic dignity: cognitive disability. Her failure is no longer
moral; it is systemic. She is not weak. She is collateral damage from
being constantly online.

Yet this is larger than individual suffering. A population unable to concentrate, remember, or choose is not merely an unproductive
workforce. It is an ungovernable polity. Democracy presumes a citizen
capable of following an argument across paragraphs, of remembering
yesterday's promise when voting tomorrow. If cognition fragments, so
does self-government. A people who cannot remember are condemned not
just to repeat the past, but to be told what the past was, and to
believe it.

The political question of our century is no longer who controls the
means of production? but who controls the means of perception?

Perpetual Stimulation
=====================

In that light, the paper's most haunting choice, the exclusion of the depressed, acquires philosophical weight. The researchers sought a
"clean" signal, free of affect. They wished to see the thing itself.
And what they found was a doubling. Perhaps this is the affect.
Perhaps the mind, faced with an environment of perpetual stimulation,
begins to disable itself as a last act of defense, a biological
attempt to lower the volume by breaking the dial.

Meanwhile, at the far end of the data, a small mercy: among adults
70 and older, the prevalence of cognitive disability has declined.
They are, in statistical terms, the last generation to have lived
most of life before the feed. Their synapses were wired by books, conversations, and silence. They can still recall what it felt like
to finish a thought.

The young cannot. They are digital natives in the truest, bleakest
sense, born in a country that remembers nothing of itself.

Wong's paper will be filed, cited, and forgotten like the rest. But
read plainly, it documents the first epidemiological evidence of a
cognitive collapse engineered by design. The authors close with
professional understatement: the findings "warrant further
investigation." One hopes we remain capable of conducting it.

Stay curious

Colin

From:
<https://onepercentrule.substack.com/p/under-40s-declining-memory>

--- PyGate Linux v1.5
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Sun, 16 Nov 2025 16:23:00 -0000 (UTC)
Ben Collver <bencollver@tilde.pink> wrote:

Under 40's Declining Memory
===========================

A Large US Study Finds Memory Decline Surge in Young People

Cognitive Disability
====================

Has social media engineered the collapse of the human mind? The
answer is yes, if we believe the results of a measurable scientific

[]

From:
<https://onepercentrule.substack.com/p/under-40s-declining-memory>

TL;DNR

Oh look! shiny!

--
Bah, and indeed Humbug.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Kerr-Mudd, John <admin@127.0.0.1> wrote:

On Sun, 16 Nov 2025 16:23:00 -0000 (UTC)
Ben Collver <bencollver@tilde.pink> wrote:

Under 40's Declining Memory
===========================

A Large US Study Finds Memory Decline Surge in Young People

Cognitive Disability
====================

Has social media engineered the collapse of the human mind? The
answer is yes, if we believe the results of a measurable scientific

[]

From:
<https://onepercentrule.substack.com/p/under-40s-declining-memory>

TL;DNR

Oh look! shiny!

I beg to differ, I thought it apposite.

--
^?^. Sn!pe, PTB, FIBS My pet rock Gordon just is.

Am I a surprised wading bird!


--- PyGate Linux v1.5
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 16/11/2025 18:57, Stefan Ram wrote:

Ben Collver <bencollver@tilde.pink> wrote or quoted:

Has social media engineered the collapse of the human mind?

Already in the 70s, we had a band named "Devo", who believed
mankind had begun to regress.

But to be sure that social media are the culprit, it might
help to look specifically for young people who do not use
them (if such people can be found) and then to look whether
they really fare better in tests.

It's listening to pop music that does it.

Classical music should be the norm, other forms should be banned....




(just, kidding)
--
Adrian C

--- PyGate Linux v1.5
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote in news:mo0b3eFgbadU1 @mid.individual.net:

Adrian Caspersz wrote:

Stefan Ram wrote:

Ben Collver wrote or quoted:

Has social media engineered the collapse of the human mind?

ÿÿ Already in the 70s, we had a band named "Devo", who believed
ÿÿ mankind had begun to regress.

ÿÿ But to be sure that social media are the culprit, it might
ÿÿ help to look specifically for young people who do not use
ÿÿ them (if such people can be found) and then to look whether
ÿÿ they really fare better in tests.

It's listening to pop music that does it.

In the same way that pocket calculators killed mental arithmetic in the
70s, I would look at whether it's search engines, rather than social
media which are/have killed memory ...

--- PyGate Linux v1.5
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 17/11/2025 10:18, Andy Burns wrote:

Adrian Caspersz wrote:

Stefan Ram wrote:

Ben Collver wrote or quoted:

Has social media engineered the collapse of the human mind?

ÿÿ Already in the 70s, we had a band named "Devo", who believed
ÿÿ mankind had begun to regress.

ÿÿ But to be sure that social media are the culprit, it might
ÿÿ help to look specifically for young people who do not use
ÿÿ them (if such people can be found) and then to look whether
ÿÿ they really fare better in tests.

It's listening to pop music that does it.

In the same way that pocket calculators killed mental arithmetic in the
70s, I would look at whether it's search engines, rather than social
media which are/have killed memory ...

We've all been poisoned by various chemicals,

PTFE, Lead, Alcohol, Tobacoo, Aluminium etc...

Just done a google and Aspartame don't look too good for memory function.

(I drink a lot of diet coke)

--
Adrian C

--- PyGate Linux v1.5
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

In the same way that pocket calculators killed mental arithmetic in the
70s, I would look at whether it's search engines, rather than social
media which are/have killed memory ...

Might be constant and incessant use of weed among a large fraction of the population.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

--- PyGate Linux v1.5
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) wrote in news:10fg8bd$plk$1@panix2.panix.com:

In the same way that pocket calculators killed mental arithmetic in the >>> 70s, I would look at whether it's search engines, rather than social
media which are/have killed memory ...

Might be constant and incessant use of weed among a large fraction of the population.
--scott

How about the modern concept of barely reading a text to get all the answers for a test. Very little brainwork needed there. Rote learning seems to be enmphasised over actually learning how to evaluate language and decide what a reasonable answer is.

On the good side they are still trying to have at least minimal comprehension in two languages in high school.

I've met far too many of the younger generations that have graduated with little or no real skills or experiences.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

David LaRue <huey.dll@tampabay.rr.com> wrote:

How about the modern concept of barely reading a text to get all the answers >for a test. Very little brainwork needed there. Rote learning seems to be >enmphasised over actually learning how to evaluate language and decide what a >reasonable answer is.

Modern? That was happening long, long ago. Although I think the British perfected it before Americans did.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

--- PyGate Linux v1.5
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram) writes:

Ben Collver <bencollver@tilde.pink> wrote or quoted:

Has social media engineered the collapse of the human mind?

Already in the 70s, we had a band named "Devo", who believed
mankind had begun to regress.

Never mind the 1970s, how about the 370s BCE?

?And in this instance, you who are the father of letters, from a
paternal love of your own children have been led to attribute to
them a quality which they cannot have; for this discovery of yours
will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will
not use their memories; they will trust to the external written
characters and not remember of themselves. The specific which you
have discovered is an aid not to memory, but to reminiscence, and
you give your disciples not truth, but only the semblance of truth;
they will be hearers of many things and will have learned nothing;
they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing;
they will be tiresome company, having the show of wisdom without the
reality.?

--
https://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/

--- PyGate Linux v1.5
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Sun, 16 Nov 2025 19:30:58 +0000
snipeco.2@gmail.com (Sn!pe) wrote:

Kerr-Mudd, John <admin@127.0.0.1> wrote:

On Sun, 16 Nov 2025 16:23:00 -0000 (UTC)
Ben Collver <bencollver@tilde.pink> wrote:

Under 40's Declining Memory
===========================

A Large US Study Finds Memory Decline Surge in Young People

Cognitive Disability
====================

Has social media engineered the collapse of the human mind? The
answer is yes, if we believe the results of a measurable scientific

[]

From:
<https://onepercentrule.substack.com/p/under-40s-declining-memory>

TL;DNR

Oh look! shiny!

I beg to differ, I thought it apposite.

I was being, like, ironic. (It being a long article about folk being unable
to concentrate on e.g. long articles)

--
Bah, and indeed Humbug.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Tue, 18 Nov 2025 08:46:31 +0000
Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote:

ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram) writes:

Ben Collver <bencollver@tilde.pink> wrote or quoted:

Has social media engineered the collapse of the human mind?

Already in the 70s, we had a band named "Devo", who believed
mankind had begun to regress.

Never mind the 1970s, how about the 370s BCE?

?And in this instance, you who are the father of letters, from a
paternal love of your own children have been led to attribute to
them a quality which they cannot have; for this discovery of yours
will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will
not use their memories; they will trust to the external written
characters and not remember of themselves. The specific which you
have discovered is an aid not to memory, but to reminiscence, and
you give your disciples not truth, but only the semblance of truth;
they will be hearers of many things and will have learned nothing;
they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing;
they will be tiresome company, having the show of wisdom without the
reality.?

Right. Time to ban books.

--
Bah, and indeed Humbug.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 17/11/2025 10:18, Andy Burns wrote:

Adrian Caspersz wrote:

Stefan Ram wrote:

Ben Collver wrote or quoted:

Has social media engineered the collapse of the human mind?

ÿÿ Already in the 70s, we had a band named "Devo", who believed
ÿÿ mankind had begun to regress.

ÿÿ But to be sure that social media are the culprit, it might
ÿÿ help to look specifically for young people who do not use
ÿÿ them (if such people can be found) and then to look whether
ÿÿ they really fare better in tests.

It's listening to pop music that does it.

In the same way that pocket calculators killed mental arithmetic in the
70s, I would look at whether it's search engines, rather than social
media which are/have killed memory ...

I used to know practically every phone number I needed. Now I have to
look up my own.


--
Regards
wasbit

--- PyGate Linux v1.5
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 18/11/2025 01:30, David LaRue wrote:

kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) wrote in news:10fg8bd$plk$1@panix2.panix.com:

In the same way that pocket calculators killed mental arithmetic in the >>>> 70s, I would look at whether it's search engines, rather than social
media which are/have killed memory ...

Might be constant and incessant use of weed among a large fraction of the
population.
--scott

How about the modern concept of barely reading a text to get all the answers for a test. Very little brainwork needed there. Rote learning seems to be enmphasised over actually learning how to evaluate language and decide what a reasonable answer is.

On the good side they are still trying to have at least minimal comprehension in two languages in high school.

I've met far too many of the younger generations that have graduated with little or no real skills or experiences.

Rote learning has always served me well.
As did taking the chalks at darts before electronic scoreboards.


--
Regards
wasbit

--- PyGate Linux v1.5
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

wasbit <wasbit@REMOVEhotmail.com> wrote in news:10fheqb$1ev4g$1@dont-
email.me:

On 17/11/2025 10:18, Andy Burns wrote:

Adrian Caspersz wrote:

Stefan Ram wrote:

Ben Collver wrote or quoted:

Has social media engineered the collapse of the human mind?

ÿÿ Already in the 70s, we had a band named "Devo", who believed
ÿÿ mankind had begun to regress.

ÿÿ But to be sure that social media are the culprit, it might
ÿÿ help to look specifically for young people who do not use
ÿÿ them (if such people can be found) and then to look whether
ÿÿ they really fare better in tests.

It's listening to pop music that does it.

In the same way that pocket calculators killed mental arithmetic in the
70s, I would look at whether it's search engines, rather than social
media which are/have killed memory ...

I used to know practically every phone number I needed. Now I have to
look up my own.

I still remember my frined's phone numbers from long ago as well as the current ones. I can navigate several cities and most of the USA by deead reconning and memory. I rarely use maps or lookup a route to someplace
before going. The journey counts as much as getting to th =e destination. Use your mind and you will find much you never new existed. Listen to
social media and you are stuck in the mud.

Be well and follow God on your journey...

--- PyGate Linux v1.5
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Stefan Ram:

Already in the 70s, we had a band named "Devo", who believed
mankind had begun to regress.

But to be sure that social media are the culprit, it might
help to look specifically for young people who do not use them
(if such people can be found) and then to look whether they
really fare better in tests.

I think it has a lot do to with the explosive mix of capitalism
and wellfare society: surviving is not so hard anymore (and you
don't rely on your tribe and family), but many people don't find
it really worth it, dragging miserable vegetable exitance.

--
() ascii ribbon campaign -- against html e-mail
/\ www.asciiribbon.org -- against proprietary attachments

--- PyGate Linux v1.5
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

David LaRue:

How about the modern concept of barely reading a text to get
all the answers for a test.

With the AI (Artificial Idiot) aka SALAMI (Systematic
Approaches to Learning Algorithms and Machine Inferences), one
need only ask one's question in chat-like interface to get an
immediate answer (gratification). Active research, learning, and
thinking are disincentivised.

--
() ascii ribbon campaign -- against html e-mail
/\ www.asciiribbon.org -- against proprietary attachments

--- PyGate Linux v1.5
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> writes:

ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram) writes:

Ben Collver <bencollver@tilde.pink> wrote or quoted:

Has social media engineered the collapse of the human mind?

Already in the 70s, we had a band named "Devo", who believed
mankind had begun to regress.

Never mind the 1970s, how about the 370s BCE?

And in this instance, you who are the father of letters, from a
paternal love of your own children have been led to attribute to
them a quality which they cannot have; for this discovery of yours
will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will
not use their memories; they will trust to the external written
characters and not remember of themselves. The specific which you
have discovered is an aid not to memory, but to reminiscence, and
you give your disciples not truth, but only the semblance of truth;
they will be hearers of many things and will have learned nothing;
they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing;
they will be tiresome company, having the show of wisdom without the
reality.

Writing constituted a phase change in the use of that particular
phenomenon that defines humans, language. That change was spread over
many centuries, say, from Sumer to Rome.

Printing constituted another, similar phase change. From Gutenberg to
London daily newspapers was only a few centuries.

Machines that can produce unlimited quantities of literate,
grammatical, superficially coherent language is another phase change.
Its effects will not take centuries and they will realize far more
powerfully the calamity anticipated by the speaker of 370+ BCE.

Word.

https://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/

--
Mike Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada

--- PyGate Linux v1.5
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> writes:

Already in the 70s, we had a band named "Devo", who believed
mankind had begun to regress.

Never mind the 1970s, how about the 370s BCE?

?And in this instance, you who are the father of letters, from a
paternal love of your own children have been led to attribute to
them a quality which they cannot have; for this discovery of yours
will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will
not use their memories; they will trust to the external written
characters and not remember of themselves. The specific which you
have discovered is an aid not to memory, but to reminiscence, and
you give your disciples not truth, but only the semblance of truth;
they will be hearers of many things and will have learned nothing;
they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing;
they will be tiresome company, having the show of wisdom without the
reality.?

And yet, it turned out writing is a pretty useful skill. Relying on
something as unreliable as human memory isn't much good for more than storytelling.

As for the regression, didn't Socrates already complain about how his
students were way too interested in wine and women on the expense of
learning? So either he was a bore or had forgotten what it was to be
young. And if he had forgotten, then he should've taken notes.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.1
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)