The Digital Delusion

Educator and neuroscientist Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath reveals why digital tools in school consistently undermine learning—and what parents, teachers, and schools can do to push back with purpose. Our children are struggling. Schools, once alive with deep learning born of human connection, are now dominated by screens and digital tools. The result is unmistakable: falling performance, fractured attention, and the slow erosion of rigorous thought. For the first time in the history of standardized cognitive measurement, children are consistently scoring lower on key measures of cognitive development. We were told that classroom technology was progress. It wasn’t. In The Digital Delusion, neuroscientist and educator Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath shows how the widespread use of laptops, tablets, and educational software in classrooms is undermining how children learn, think, and develop. Drawing on decades of neuroscience and education research, Dr. Horvath dismantles the core myths driving the EdTech movement, and offers a practical playbook for putting people—not programs—back at the center of education. This is not a call to reject technology. Now, more than ever, we need a generation capable of deep thought and understanding. This book is an urgent call to reclaim real learning and restore an education that builds strong, motivated thinkers.