People have been saying that teenagers aren't as good at reading, sums and science as they were when they were at school since for ever, but now it seems to be a fact. OECD (2024), Do Adults Have the Skills They Need to Thrive in a Changing World?: Survey of Adult Skills 2023, OECD Skills Studies, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/b263dc5d-en.
It matters. If you can't read very well then it doesn't really matter what your phone, tablet or PC tells you. If you can't add up then you aren't going to know if you got paid the right amount, or whether your rent is more or less than your grocery bill.
The FT Weekend edition of 15/16 March 2025 identified a date when it all officially started going wrong.
Scores for all three subjects tended to peak around 2012. They fell further between 2012 and 2018 than they did during the pandemic. Adults show a similar pattern, with declines visible across all age groups.
2012 was the key date when 87% of UK households owned a mobile phone, the date when you could say 'everyone's got one' with pretty much all the accuracy you could need for any reasonable purpose. You can find the link here: https://www.statista.com/statistics/289167/mobile-phone-penetration-in-the-uk/
Doomscrolling
Does it matter? The best readers earn on average double the rate of the worst readers, who are eight times more likely to be unemployed. So, yes. It matters quite a lot.
We Need To Talk About Children
We can't stop teenagers from using mobile phones. It would be silly to even try. But Helping Cards can get them back in the family, face-to-face, talking, learning and sharing. Just the way you imagined it was going to be when you said 'We need to talk about children.'