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When books were the fresh new tech, Socrates believed they would spread an epidemic of forgetfulness. A millennium later, aristocrats fretted that the printing press would lead to mental overload among the masses. Then parents worried that calculators handicapped arithmetic skills and that e-mail would prove harmful to IQ. Now, there’s a new mind-mushing invention on the scene: digital technology.
According to a PBS poll, 53 percent of people believe that technology is making us dumber. Polling more than a thousand experts, the Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center and the Pew Internet Project found that 42 percent believed “the hyperconnected brain is shallow” and maintains “an unhealthy dependence on the Internet and mobile devices.”
But the worry over digital technology’s place in the classroom isn’t just the latest flare up of mob technophobia. It’s fueled by high-profile events coinciding with the mass adoption of digital tech among students, leading to a strong associative relationship.
Consider Finland. At the beginning of the century, Finland’s education system gained renown as the best in the world. It was a top performer in the 2000 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), scoring high in math and science and number one in reading. Educators flocked to the country to uncover its recipe for success. But between 2006 and 2012, the country’s scores fell sharply while other top performers remained steady. Several theories have been offered for the trend reversal, among them the increased adoption of “screen time” technology. Educator and policy adviser Pasi Shalberg posits that increased time spent on the internet for media and socializing may lead to difficulties in concentrating on complex issues, such as those found in math and science.
Examples like this have primed popular imagination to distrust digital technology’s role in our cognitive development and maintaining mental acuity. 
In the face of uncertainty, many experts argue we should avoid the indiscriminate adoption of digital technology. Instead, our approach should be one of intention, only adopting the technologies we need to achieve a desired outcome. And we’ve been here before. When calculators became widespread in elementary schools, parents and pundits worried that they would irreversibly harm the students’ ability to learn mathematics. But math teachers chose to integrate them into the classroom with intentionality. Today, they teach students the “selective and strategic use” of calculators, improving not only math skills but reasoning and problem-solving skills in general.
As the evidence on digital technology continues to be cataloged, it seems the best approach is to consider it neither beneficial nor harmful. As such, the question shouldn’t be whether they make students stupid. It’s whether we are employing them in a way that deters or promotes mentally engaging activities.