We are witnessing a crisis—not just of literacy, but in our societal capacity to simply think for ourselves.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the percentage of U.S. adults ages 16 to 65 who fall in the lowest level of literacy has increased from 19% in 2017 to a staggering 28% in 2023. But this problem extends far beyond simple test scores—rather, it reflects a broader collapse in critical thinking.

In the case of students, the data is even more alarming. As noted by tests carried out by the NCES, children’s reading skills in the U.S. have continued to decline yearly following the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“It’s become a problem over the years that many students just seem to lack skills like basic reading comprehension and critical thinking,” said Maria Novello (12).

Students who have been struggling continue to have even lower scores on average, showing a stark and concerning lack of support for those who need it most.

This decline in literacy is not an outlier. It is part of an ongoing cultural shift that spells great danger and instability for our future: the rise of anti-intellectualism and a complete overreliance on artificial intelligence platforms. Across the nation, the basic skills of reading and comprehension have been devalued over recent years, intellectual curiosity among younger generations has grown weaker, and AI is rapidly replacing human thought.

“I’ve noticed that with the increased proliferation and ease of access to technology among young people, especially with AI in recent years, basic skills like reading, writing, and speaking have rapidly declined,” said Spanish and social science teacher Jamie Davis González.

Not only has AI negatively impacted our natural environments, artists, and other occupations, but it has also become an overused crutch for many students.

“Obviously, it’s helpful, but so many kids are struggling to develop the most basic level of comprehension and analysis skills because they offload all of that to machines to do for them,” said González.

Rather than simply reading a novel and writing an essay as assigned, many students will simply have an AI model summarize the novel and generate an essay for them.

According to a 2024 study by Statista.com researcher Veera Korhonen, “a whopping 86 percent [of students] said they were using artificial intelligence tools in their schoolwork. Almost a fourth of them used them on a daily basis.”

Like any muscle, our brains weaken when they aren’t consistently exercised, and sadly we are seeing this play out in real time en masse.

This is not just an issue that concerns education, but rather society as a whole. A people who rely on what they are told rather than thinking for themselves is one that is easily controlled and manipulated. 

This overreliance on AI makes us highly susceptible to misinformation and propaganda. As a result, we can easily become subservient whether we want to or not—nuanced discourse fading into oblivion. 

“If we continue on this path, we’re going to lack the proper foundation for decision-making and critical thinking that’ll be required of us in daily life,” said Cami Martinez (12). 

By prioritizing instant gratification over the pursuit of knowledge, our society is rapidly becoming one in which complex issues are being simplified to the most surface-level ideas, not allowing for deeper conversations and effective changes.

What does this mean for our future as a nation? For the whole world? It means we’ll be entirely made up of a scarily incompetent workforce that can not think for themselves and ruled by an electorate that can’t distinguish fiction from reality. We’ll be a society that solely depends on machines to simply perform actions that make us human. 

We won’t just be uninformed or ignorant about a few topics, we will be powerless.

In the face of such a distressing future, it can often feel as though change is impossible. It’s highly important that parents and families are involved in instilling a love of learning in their children from a young age.

Our schools and general society must encourage a level of critical thinking that doesn’t make students feel as if they have to rely on machines to get their work done. And finally, we as students must take the accountability necessary to work at this and show that we can, indeed, think for ourselves.

“It’s necessary that we’re optimistic about this, but in doing so we have to understand what we’re doing wrong now so we can have that future to look forward to before it’s too late,” said González.