An Analogue Childhood: Our Brains Are Changing
Lately, I’ve found myself caught in a strange loop. I open a book—something I would’ve devoured in an afternoon as a child—and within minutes, my attention drifts. I reach for my phone. Or I decide to “just check” something on my laptop. Even while watching a show, I catch myself juggling multiple screens. And I’m not alone. Many of my peers, educators and professionals alike, confess the same: we’re struggling to focus in the ways we once could.
I was raised in what I call an analogue childhood—a world of cassette tapes, paper books, rotary phones, and long stretches of boredom that bred imagination. My childhood brain was sculpted in a slower, quieter world. But the digital world we now inhabit is something entirely different—and it’s reshaping us.
My students are digital natives. They’ve never known a world without the internet, and they often toggle between apps, TikToks, texts, and assignments with ease. But that constant switching comes at a cost. Research has shown that multitasking in digital environments can lead to decreased academic performance, fragmented attention, and difficulty in sustaining deep focus (May & Elder, 2018; Uncapher & Wagner, 2018).
The American Academy of Pediatrics (2023) now estimates that about 1 in 10 school-age children in the U.S. has been diagnosed with ADHD. But the deeper question might be: are more children truly struggling to pay attention, or is the environment they’re learning in no longer compatible with the way their brains function?
The brains of today aren’t meant to be learning in the ways of yesterday.
Even John Dewey, over a century ago, wrote: “If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow.” His words feel more urgent than ever. We’re still trying to fit 21st-century minds into 19th-century learning models.
Some call this a crisis. Others see it as evolution. A reconfiguration of human cognition.
There’s also a quiet, growing conversation about neurodiversity. Traditionally, the term describes natural variations in cognitive functioning—like ADHD, autism, and dyslexia. But in our hyperconnected age, some wonder whether the term might also describe a broader shift. Are new types of brains and thinking styles emerging—ones we are mistakenly labeling as “disordered” simply because they don’t fit into our legacy systems of education and work?
What if we’re not broken?
What if our institutions are?
As a professor and a researcher, I don’t have all the answers. But I do know that our minds—both analogue and digital—deserve compassion, understanding, and learning environments that reflect the world we now live in.
References
American Academy of Pediatrics. (2023). ADHD in children: Information for parents. https://www.healthychildren.org
Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and education: An introduction to the philosophy of education. Macmillan.
May, K. E., & Elder, A. D. (2018). Efficient, helpful, or distracting? A literature review of media multitasking in relation to academic performance. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 15(13). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-018-0096-z
Uncapher, M. R., & Wagner, A. D. (2018). Minds and brains of media multitaskers: Current findings and future directions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(40), 9889–9896. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1611612115