The American education crisis is on the rise due the internet and will only get worse as time progresses.
As the world becomes more digital it has become a challenge for students to obtain information presented in class. Between 2019 till mid 2022 the world encountered a deadly pandemic, which caused everyone to isolate themselves from people. That meant the only way to connect with others was through the internet. Things like schooling, graduations, making new friends, and keeping up with family and friends all had to be done via the internet. By the time students were integrated back into schools a lot of students lost their social skills. This has made it hard for students to develop skills like empathy, an emotion that is needed to build connections with others.
As the newer generations of students come into school it has become apparent that many cannot read, write or even do simple math sufficiently. In Spectrum news 1 article, “Is Generation Alpha already doomed?” There is a quote that says, “"They're feral. They can't read. They're crazy. They're addicted to their iPads,"” Ever since gen alphas came out the womb they have had a screen shoved into their face since. One popular app that has gained a lot of traction is tiktok. Many people love this app especially children because of its short form content. You can stay scrolling on the app for hours making it more addicting. However, this app shortens your attention span making it harder to focus in class. Students are unable to soak in the necessary knowledge they need to know because their brains are wired to only consume information in small amounts and move on to the next thing. Even though access to the internet is easier than ever, that doesn’t mean it is always good or even safe.
Another concern many have is the rise of AI. Although AI is relatively new and does serve good purposes, it also can be an enabling resource for many students. One reason a lot of schools/teachers dislike AI is because of plagiarism. Students can ask Chatgpt to write an essay or even solve a math equation and the possibilities are endless. In this day in age, it can be very hard to distinguish between whether or not a student understands information in class or if they’re just using the resources that's easily accessible.
As the world goes on, this problem will get worse, if not corrected. When trying to correct this problem at school the first step can be restricting certain websites or resources on school electronic devices. Second step can be enabling plagiarism checks on all authorized electronic devices given by the school. Third step can be allowing all assignments to have a lockdown browser for assignments via electronic devices. Remember, the internet doesn’t have to be a scary place, everyone will just have to learn to use the internet resources correctly.