Incredible. Those bloody Irish and their inability to tell a good yarn. Hanging's too good for them, as my friend Brian said in the pub there yesterday.

Years apart, unfortunately. First declines evident in older teens as far back as 2012/2013. Followed by steady, consistent decline across age groups henceforth, all the way down to preschoolers.

I guess "handheld devices" are the major issue here when it comes to these last points. Anyway, it may be too late to put the genie back in the bottle, so we'll probably just have to accept the decline of human intelligence and its replacement by the artificial variety.

Well, all the stats show that, for the first time since the introduction of aptitude tests, we are seeing lower scores across the board, coinciding precisely with the proliferation of smartphones. Even less obviously measurable things like peripheral vision, spatial awareness, etc are in decline

Hi! While I agree that determining what constitutes "bad" social media is too subjective to define, a blanket ban on smartphones/tablets for children would benefit future generations. As a teacher, I have read many reports showing an undeniable decline in aptitude, motor skills, attention spans, etc

Cheers! Looks interesting

What's it from?

I dunno. I ate Alan Bennett once and found him a bit bland and ultimately somewhat disappointing.