The drop from 2018 to 2022 is as big as the one from 2022 to 2026, so it's not obvious whether AI had a role at all, although it's highly plausible.
I suspect the bigger culprit is the optimized monetization of human attention, because pre-algorithmic social media doesn't seem to be as destructive. The fact that science wasn't as affected as math and reading (both of which rely more on attention/practice than rote memorization) somewhat supports this.
I saw extremely rapid computerisation of my kid's education around 2020. Properly thought out and edited text books were replaced with last minute rushed teachers notes on google docs and buggy apps.
When I was a freshman in college taking CS courses, they were just rolling out a new Java curriculum. And Java being fairly new, the textbooks that we were assigned were absolutely terrible. Just garbage books.
The rollout was… uneven. Sophomore year, we had to do our projects in C++. Actually, we were expected to have already learned C++ the previous year, so there was a bit of a rush. Luckily, C++ had been around for longer so the textbooks were a ton better. And after a few years, the Java books improved as well.
dumberquestions · · focus · HN ↗
I suspect the bigger culprit is the optimized monetization of human attention, because pre-algorithmic social media doesn't seem to be as destructive. The fact that science wasn't as affected as math and reading (both of which rely more on attention/practice than rote memorization) somewhat supports this.
chairmansteve · · focus · HN ↗
That would have contributed to to the decline.
mcphage · · focus · HN ↗
raddan · · focus · HN ↗
mcphage · · focus · HN ↗