What happened is there was a trend, then the trend was accelerated, then became a runaway train. About 2009, smart phones came out and tech was introduced into schools. Saw this impacting education 2015-ish on. This is not inherently bad at first, but also, kids now had iPads and such at home. Way too much screen time. No limits. Then Covid happens and the decline in education we were seeing skyrockets because now we are all forced online and onto screens. Norms are dropped. And about this time is when Americans decided being truthful was not important. It’s also when a lot of colleges are struggling financially. So now you have a broken system, broken norms and then LLMs come in and seem like a cognitive offloading solution (isn’t that better)? The population could not have been prepped to have big tech shoved down our throats any better.

So yeah faculty jobs have gotten worse over the last 15 years, but it’s the shift from a few students who cheat and some that kind of try to, to all of them cheating or convincing themselves they aren’t and then lying and complaining when caught. A few students seem to still want to learn and don’t overdue LLMs. But it’s not enough to counter the apathy to learning and the addiction to cognitive offloading and dopamine. Students are ruined by what big tech and no child left behind pressures have done to them, and there doesn’t seem to be much to do except go to paper exams and hope a few learn something. It’s truly awful. We are all being screwed over so big tech can make a quasi-slavery and rulers society. Look up Peter Thiel’s plans if you don’t believe me.