As books are replaced by phones and writing is taken away to messages or short abbreviations, teachers are noticing major changes in how students express their ideas and opinions, both verbally and in assignments. With more students every year spending more time on screens instead of reading, these changes are becoming more visible in essays, assignments and everyday communication among Gen-Z students.
In Karlee Ringle’s English class, evolving trends in vocabulary and language skills have become increasingly more noticeable. While she has noticed some growth in students’ vocabulary, she has seen a decline in their grammar mechanics. At the same time, students’ reliance on AI and autocorrect has contributed to a decline in students’ attention to detail.
“As more AI evolves, we’re only going to give more assignments with paper and pencil rather than online,” Ringle said. “We don’t really have a problem with losing vocabulary; it’s more of a tech issue.”
Outside of English classrooms, similar trends are noticeable in the school library. Courtney Johnson, the librarian at South, has seen that fewer students are checking out books in the past few years, leading to shortened attention spans and difficulty focusing on reading when required in class.
“When the students give themselves a chance, they actually love to read, they decompress and build empathy,” Johnson said. “If you actually turn off your phone and read a book, it is the best thing for your brain besides sleeping.”
From a student’s perspective, challenges with writing and focus have become a difficult problem to tackle. Sadie Hill ’27 has previously struggled with writing simple essays or working on assignments in her AP classes. Her experience taking online courses to help strengthen her grammar usage and reading more has drastically changed her grades and her ability to handle higher level courses.
“I wish that there were more classes that focus solely on grammar mechanics and how to write better,” Hill said. “I didn’t mind taking things into my own hands and doing online classes to get better, but if there were classes that students were required to take to help with these problems, it would have been a lifesaver.”
Gen Z’s communication and language skills are changing, and teachers, librarians and even students are strongly noticing it. Teachers clearly see how students are using the internet to rely on writing and grammar and librarians are noticing that fewer students are reading and that attention spans have drastically shortened. Students, however, show that to do well in high-level classes offered at South, they need to get some extra practice to help them keep up. These different perspectives tell how much the internet has affected students as a whole. Finding ways to encourage reading and keep up with grammar mechanics will be important to help students communicate clearly and succeed in their young adult and everyday lives.
“Our technology is preventing us from being detail-oriented,” Ringle said. “Everybody should know basic grammar, but technology is preventing that.”
