‘Our children are less cognitively capable,’ says neuroscientist who wants to cut screen use in schools

The neuroscientist Jared Cooney Horvath argues for reducing screen use in schools ‘if we want our kids to have deep transferrable knowledge in our heads’. Photograph: sturti/Getty Images

Jared Cooney Horvath is on a mission. In the wake of global campaigns for smartphone bans in schools and social media restrictions for under-16s, the neuroscientist wants to raise the alarm about educational technology in classrooms.

A former teacher, Horvath believes the use of screens and digital tools in schools is undermining how children learn and develop. “This might be one of the hardest truths our generation has to face,” he writes in his book, The Digital Delusion.