AT A GLANCE
• Jared Cooney Horvath’s self published book, “The Digital Delusion,” is helping drive a growing movement against heavy screen use in schools.
• The book argues that the rise of laptops, tablets and education technology is tied to falling standardized test scores among students.
• Parents, educators and school leaders are using the book in debates over whether classrooms should return to more paper, textbooks and handwriting.
• Critics say the book draws overly broad conclusions and confuses correlation with causation in the debate over education technology.
Screen Time In Schools Faces New Scrutiny As ‘The Digital Delusion’ Fuels Parent Pushback
An NBC News report on a self published book about screen time in schools has highlighted how quickly the issue has become a rallying point for parents and educators pushing back against the heavy use of technology in classrooms.
Jared Cooney Horvath released “The Digital Delusion” in December 2025. Since then, the book has moved from a relatively quiet release to the center of a national debate over laptops, tablets and education technology in public schools.
Parents have handed out copies at school board meetings. School administrators have used it while considering technology limits. Actor Hugh Grant promoted the book and wrote a blurb for its cover. Horvath has also testified before the U.S. Senate and state legislatures as more states consider limits on school screen time.
The book argues that the yearslong decline in standardized test scores among American students is connected to the rise of one to one technology programs, where schools provide every student with a laptop or tablet.
Horvath Says Schools Should Return To Paper And Textbooks
Horvath’s central argument is simple: students learn better through paper, handwriting, books and discussion than they do through screens.
In “The Digital Delusion,” he argues that education technology has not delivered on its promises and that schools have leaned too heavily on devices, software and digital learning platforms. He also warns that artificial intelligence will not fix the deeper problem.
“EdTech isn’t failing because of outdated software or poor teacher training,” Horvath writes in the book. “It’s failing because it’s fundamentally incompatible with how human beings actually learn.”
Horvath points to research showing that heavy computer use is associated with lower scores on international assessments. He argues that schools would be better off investing in basic classroom needs rather than more laptops and software.
“If I ran a school, I would drop it all tomorrow,” Horvath said. “And people would say, ‘What would you do?’ I’d say, ‘We already have it. It’s called textbooks. It’s called paper and pencil.’ It’s not about inventing something new, it’s about going back to what works better.”
For parents already concerned about screen time, Horvath’s book has given them a way to make their case before school boards and district leaders.
Jodi Carreon, a mother in San Diego and national director of Schools Beyond Screens, said the book helped parents feel more confident when speaking about education technology.
“As parents, we feel a lot of imposter syndrome sometimes when we’re talking about this,” Carreon said. “So having a book written by someone with a background in education as well as neuroscience added a lot of credibility to what parents were experiencing.”
In North Carolina, Granville County Public Schools administrators said they read the book while launching a “tech free” experiment that kept students off laptops two days a week. In California, parent Julie Frumin handed copies to school board members after opting her children out of device use in the Conejo Valley Unified School District.
Education Technology Supporters Push Back
Not everyone agrees with Horvath’s conclusions.
Richard Culatta, chief executive of ISTE plus ASCD, a nonprofit that advises schools on technology, said school leaders are now fielding concerns from parents who have read the book and want policy changes.
“I can’t tell you how many times I get a call in a week from a school leader who is freaking out about this and is going, ‘What do we do? How do we respond to this?’” Culatta said.
Culatta said there should be a serious review of technology purchased during the COVID pandemic, when schools spent heavily on devices and software. But he argued that blaming education technology for falling test scores is too simple.
“It’s just a huge case of correlation and causation,” Culatta said. “He’s making a causation that doesn’t exist, and the reason this is so dangerous is that when you look at what’s going on, it’s actually far more likely that there are other things that are causing that.”
He suggested mental health may have a larger effect on student performance.
Researchers Say The Evidence Is Complicated
Some education researchers say the debate is more complicated than simply declaring screens good or bad.
Peter Bergman, an associate professor of economics at the University of Texas at Austin who studies education technology, said it is difficult to use broad correlations to explain a national trend.
“It’s very hard to interpret correlations,” Bergman said. “It’s rare to have one neat story that just explains some big macro trend across the country.”
Critics also argue that Horvath treats many forms of education technology as one category, even though some tools may be more useful than others. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found that extended computer use was linked to worse scores in 2022, but students who used devices for learning for one to five hours a day at school performed better than students who did not use them at all.
Horvath said that data was an outlier because it came during pandemic disruptions and overall math scores still dropped significantly.
The Debate Is Moving Beyond Cellphone Bans
The school screen time debate comes after years of momentum behind student cellphone restrictions. Horvath said psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s book “The Anxious Generation,” which focused on teen smartphone and social media use, helped open the door for broader questions about technology in schools.
Horvath said smartphones were the “lowest hanging fruit,” and that education technology was always likely to become the next target.
“The next apple up the tree was always going to be ed tech,” Horvath said, “because once parents realize, ‘Wait a second, we can push back against cellphone use in schools, then that means we can push back against Chromebook use in schools too.’”
Horvath’s book gained traction after his Jan. 15 testimony before the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. A clip from that testimony has drawn millions of views on YouTube, and the book is now expected to be republished by Harmony Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House, in August.
Texas Cellphone Ban Adds Local Context To School Screen Debate
The debate is already playing out in Texas. Texas schools will soon be required to crack down on student cellphone use under House Bill 1481, which applies to public school districts and open enrollment charter schools.
Texas is part of a larger national shift. Some 31 states and the District of Columbia now restrict students’ use of cellphones in schools, according to Education Week.
House Bill 1481 mandates that public and charter schools prohibit students from using personal electronic devices, including smartphones, tablets and smartwatches, during the school day.
Horvath Says The Movement Will Continue
Horvath does not expect to make school screen time his only focus. He is moving to Italy with his family, in part because he believes the country has a healthier screen time balance and places more emphasis on handwriting in schools.
He also plans to write more books about learning, including one on whether genius can be taught and another called “The Learning Blueprint.”
Still, Horvath believes the debate over screens in schools will continue because parents are already organizing around the issue.
“I’m not inventing a new school model,” Horvath said. “I’m just nudging us back into something good.”
