Last Fall UCSD (University of Southern California San Diego) announced in a report, incoming students were not prepared for college level courses, especially when it came to math but also in writing and language skills too. Unfortunately, it appears the problem is more widespread. Professors at Pepperdine and Northwestern recently admitted having to modify curriculums, including having to read aloud to their students, due to inadequate reading and comprehension skills of incoming freshman.
The TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read) trend, appears to be more than simply short on time, it appears to be a systemic problem that’s changing how we consume and process information. Students are no longer reading books and writing essays to demonstrate comprehension, analytical thinking and creativity, instead they are watching videos, using AI to help summarize and altogether bypassing the importance of reading and writing in the first place.
Currently over half of adults in the U.S. read below a 6th grade level and one-fifth are functionally illiterate. According to our National Report Card, only a third of high school seniors are ready for college, yet over half get accepted. What does this mean for the future of innovation, human development and higher education?
The Shift to Image & Video-Based Content Consumption
When televisions entered most homes in the 50’s and 60’s, people said that it would rot our brains. That didn’t seem to happen, but people were only watching TV when they were home, not at school, not at work and certainly not while in line at the grocery store.
When smart phones came along everything changed, it wasn’t long after that most everyone had a TV of sorts in their pockets. Add to that the infiltration of social media consuming much of our free time with its memes, reels and shorts as it ushered in the age of consuming video content in short snippets.
In just over 2 decades our attention spans have declined from approximately 2.5 minutes to somewhere around 40 seconds. Compound that with our desire to learn passively through images and video (aka TLDR) and it’s no wonder reading and comprehension skills have declined. We are becoming so impatient these days that a new term has emerged TLDW (Too Long: Didn’t Watch). Not only are we not interested in reading, we no longer have the time to watch long format videos either.
AI’s Rise is Refining How We Learn
November 2022 is a defining point in the history of AI (Artificial Intelligence). That’s when ChatGPT was introduced to the public at large. Since then, several other chatbots have come along to address our growing need for AI assistance (Gemini, CoPilot, Perplexity, Claude and Grok among others).
Today we use AI to help us answer questions, create images and videos, summarize books and large documents and more. Students especially have quickly adopted this new tool, and schools and teachers alike are having to adapt. AI offers the educational benefits of individualized learning, round-the-clock tutoring and instant feedback. It also brings with the ability to sidestep reading books in lieu of instant summaries and no need to write an analysis, as it will do it for you, which then that brings up the issue of cheating and plagiarism.
More and more schools and teachers are left with no choice but to embrace AI as it looks to only grow in its use among students. Is this their preference, for some maybe, but the question remains if in fact those educational benefits outweigh the costs. Sal Khan, Founder of the Khan Academy noted “AI has the potential to revolutionize education, making it more personalized, engaging, and effective.” While Nick Bostrom cautioned “AGI has the potential to make us superhuman or it could enslave us.” We should be intentional not to forfeit our ability to read and comprehend complex topics, or those benefits could very well, turn into harsh consequences.
Changes at Colleges and Universities
Students with short attention spans. Students who are constantly distracted by devices in their pockets. Students with access to the whole of the internet via AI and its instantaneous results. This is a recipe for the continued decline in analog behaviors such as reading, writing and arithmetic. The classic 3 R’s* and the bedrock of education.
Schools have no other choice but to adapt or become irrelevant. They’ve begun revising academic integrity policies to combat cheating behaviors through the use of AI. Teachers are modifying classroom curriculums to encourage, if not require, students to learn without technology crutches. We may soon see a revival of composition books and pencils in coming years. But the reality remains, technology is here to stay.
With that in mind, schools are also taking advantage of these new tools to improve the learning experience as well. AI offers more time for teachers to think about their classroom experiences by taking on many mundane and timely administrative tasks. It also offers to assist students with personalized tutoring that meets them where they are at for a given subject and help them overcome any deficiencies.
Schools can be expected to be both holding tight to tried-and-true lessons while at the time utilizing technology to maximize learning experiences for those lessons.
Impacts of These Changing Behaviors
The long-term impact of these changes could be profound. Reading and writing help the brain develop cognitive and critical thinking skills, enhance empathy as well as improve memory and focus. We run the risk of diminishing our capacity when we turn to more passive and assistive technologies. While schools are trying as they might to retain these skills AI and technology could ultimately undermine their efforts.
The TL;DR trend and the rise of AI are reshaping the landscape of higher education in ways that could have profound and lasting effects. As students increasingly rely on video content, social media, and AI tools to consume and process information, traditional skills like reading, writing, and critical thinking are at risk of being sidelined.
Colleges and universities are at a crossroads, tasked with balancing the integration of innovative tools like AI while preserving the core skills that have long been the bedrock of human progress. The question remains: can we adapt to this new era of learning without losing the essence of what it means to be educated? The answer will shape not only the future of education but also the trajectory of innovation and human development for generations to come.
If you made it to the end of this blog, congratulations! Even at only 1000 words most will not finish. TL;DR
