1. The first alarms were raised by doctors in South Korea.
There, even children with normal intelligence are increasingly showing severe concentration problems, explosive anger when a phone is taken away, and memory gaps during simple tasks. The diagnosis sounds harsh: digital dementia. This is not a personality issue and not a “phase of growing up.” It’s a nervous system rewired around screens. Teenagers are already being admitted to digital detox clinics because, without their phones, they literally can’t function.
2. Schools around the world are seeing the same pattern.
A child can’t hold attention for more than two minutes, can’t summarize a paragraph they just read—but can perfectly remember game mechanics, passwords, and in-game rules. Take the screen away and you get either aggression or emotional emptiness. This isn’t spoiled behavior. It’s addiction to short dopamine hits, hard-wired into the brain.
3. In 2015, Microsoft recorded a sharp drop in average attention span—from 12 seconds to 8.
A goldfish has an attention span of about 9 seconds. By this measure, modern children objectively focus worse than a fish in a tank. Not because they’re “worse,” but because they live in endless scrolling, clips, notifications, and constant noise—leaving no space where a real thought can even form.
4. The most dangerous part starts quietly.
Mental math causes confusion. Texts are skimmed without comprehension. Problems can only be solved with hints. This is often called “the new normal,” when in reality it’s the loss of the ability to think deeply, logically, and independently. The brain gets used to crutches—and eventually refuses to work without them.
5. Growing up no longer happens automatically.
We’re already seeing this in people 25 and older. An adult body with teenage reactions: short attention span, constant need for stimulation, avoidance of responsibility. In Japan and South Korea, there’s a word for this: hikikomori—people who are physically alive but psychologically absent from life.