Our Children Can’t Read

How digital media is undermining education and the soul of learning

By: Brendon Naicker

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

THEY CAN SCROLL, BUT THEY CAN’T READ – AND IT’S NOT THEIR FAULT

A quiet catastrophe is unfolding in our classrooms. Children who navigate smartphones with instinctive ease struggle to parse a simple paragraph. Teenagers who spend seven hours a day glued to screens find themselves unable to concentrate long enough to finish a chapter. Teachers across the country report pupils who’ve lost the capacity for sustained reading – not because they’ve grown less clever, but because their minds have been fundamentally rewired.

This isn’t merely an educational issue. It’s a human crisis. In Our Children Can’t Read, Brendon Naicker reveals:

• How digital devices are shortening attention spans to below that of a goldfish
• Why “multitasking” is a dangerous illusion – with neuroscience proving it damages memory and heightens anxiety
• The way algorithms reduce learning to bite-sized content and students to data points
• How screens are starving young minds of the depth, patience and contemplation that make us truly human

Yet all is not lost. Drawing on cutting-edge neuroscience, timeless wisdom and revolutionary solutions – from ancient reading practices to screen-free classrooms – this book offers a way forward. Discover:
✔ The shocking truth about why today’s teens read less (and retain less) than any previous generation
✔ How to recognise “digital dementia” – the alarming new cognitive consequences of tech overload
✔ The forgotten art of deep focus – and how to nurture it in an age of distraction
✔ Practical strategies to reset young minds, from “Sabbath pedagogy” to analogue learning spaces

For exhausted parents, frustrated teachers and anyone who senses modern life is making us shallower: