What global data, personal frustration, and a sharp dose of reality taught me about where we’re headed
Let me be blunt:
I’ve felt, for years now, like people are getting dumber.
Slower. Less capable of following a conversation, solving a problem, or even functioning in basic social or professional interactions.
And at first, I chalked it up to burnout. Parenting. Maybe even arrogance.
But it kept happening—across contexts, industries, age groups.
So I went looking for the data. And unfortunately?
The data backed me up.
IQ Isn’t Everything—But It’s Not Nothing
I’m not obsessed with test scores. I’m not here to gatekeep intelligence.
But IQ is still one of the strongest indicators we have for reasoning ability, problem-solving, memory, abstraction, and adaptability. And when it drops across populations?
That’s not just trivia.
That’s a red flag for civilization.
The Numbers Don’t Lie (Even if You Wish They Did)
Let’s talk averages. Not anecdotes.
🇺🇸 U.S. IQ decline:
- 2015: ~100
- 2025: ~97.4
That’s a 2.6 point drop in 10 years.
🇯🇵 Japan:
- 2015: 112
- 2025: 106.5
A 5.5 point drop—and Japan has one of the lowest screen time averages in the developed world.
Meanwhile:
🇿🇦 South Africa:
- 2015: 73
- 2025: 93.7
That’s a 20-point leap.
Nutrition, education access, and tech expansion matter.
🇧🇷 Brazil:
- 2015: 87
- 2025: 94.5
Up more than 7 points.
The first world is in decline. The third world is catching up.
And no, it’s not just the screens. But the screens aren’t helping.
So… Why?
Everyone wants a single villain.
“TikTok is melting our brains.” “Processed food is to blame.” “Education is broken.”
They’re all right. And all wrong.
It’s not one thing.
It’s a compound failure.
- Screens replacing real conversation, boredom, and play
- Processed food full of neurotoxic dyes and preservatives
- Underfunded education systems stuck in 1995
- Social media hijacking attention and reward systems
- Families too stressed to regulate, too tired to push back
And yes—digital addiction in early childhood is a massive contributor.
We now have brain scans showing structural white matter degradation in toddlers who consume heavy screen time. That’s not opinion. That’s neuroscience.
What I’ve Seen Personally
I’ve tested at every stage of life.
152 IQ as a child. 148 as a teen. 143 after my first kid.
And I’m still sharp—but I feel the cognitive load. The attention fragmentation. The memory slippage when I’ve spent too long context-switching or screen-staring.
I’ve watched the shift in others too.
Prospects who can’t follow a sentence. Clients who forget what they asked for.
People who get defensive at basic questions.
This isn’t just social exhaustion—it’s cognitive regression.
What Scares Me Most
We’re headed full-speed into an AI future.
Robotics. Automation. Cognitive offloading.
And instead of rising to meet it, humanity is mentally checking out.
- Who’s going to fix the systems when they break?
- Who’s going to design what comes next, instead of just consuming it?
- What happens to a society when most people can’t think critically or adapt fluidly?
We are building technology that outpaces our own mental development.
That’s not innovation. That’s self-inflicted obsolescence.
So What Do We Do?
We start by telling the truth.
This isn’t elitism. This isn’t fearmongering.
It’s a survival instinct.
We need to:
- Protect cognitive development in our kids
- Rewire our own relationships to content and distraction
- Prioritize nutrition, movement, and real conversation
- Choose habits that stretch our intellect, not shrink it
- Build a culture that values thinking, not just producing and consuming
Because here’s the deal:
The future doesn’t belong to button-pushers.
It belongs to thinkers. Strategists. Creators. System fixers.
And if we don’t raise them, hire them, protect them—or become them—we’re screwed.
This post isn’t the solution. But it’s the starting point.
For anyone who’s noticed the shift. Felt the fog. Watched the lights dim.
You’re not imagining it.
Now let’s do something about it.
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