Brains are like muscles, they need to be exercised to be strong. I can think of no better metric for that exercise than reading, and children are doing a lot less of it than they used to. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/feb/29/children-reading-less-says-new-research.

So are adults.

Superficiality will always be with us; people skimming headlines and only then in media that conform to their confirmation biases. And we have increasing objection to compelling people outside those biases. You mention several.

My generation grew up with books and great music; some of my high school friends went on to play in orchestras. The music kids hear now is disposable as gum wrappers and does nothing to encourage involvement in music; even the wonderful electronic devices that allow people to create music are inevitably paired with assurances that they don't need to learn music theory. I wonder who is going to be playing the contrabassoon in orchestras in thirty years.

Social media are hosting a rebellion against proper English; sentences are becoming passé, distinguishing your and you're is elitist. Anti-intellectualism has always been part of American life but now it's among the young and against superficial thinking the gods themselves contend in vain.

Gender ideology. There was a short column in the NYT, their ethicist responding to a gay man who is part of a group of friends who vacation together. They go to Mexico and have fun. One of their group came out as gay only a few years ago and has now come out as "trans." John is no longer a "gay man," he presents as a woman, and the rest of the group doesn't think he would fit in with their annual vacation anymore. Whether a real woman or one of those new ones.

I don't see anything unreasonable about this. John is not going to fit in with this vacation. But.

The majority of responses in the comments were excoriation of the writer for not using John's new name or gender pronouns, and calling him bigot/racist (??)/transphobic and blah blah blah. The word "deadnaming" appeared in a disturbing percentage of the responses. As if this was the most important thing going on. John's new name was never mentioned; after all, the writer has known him as a gay man named John for years.

John prattles on endlessly about his new "gender identity" and his hormones, and the group is getting tired of every conversation turning around to him. Sound familiar? Can you imagine taking this person along on a sexually adventurous vacation trip? They have not rejected John as a friend, though I can see that coming.

SO many of the responses used the same words and phrases, recitation of a catechism.

John is no longer congruent with the group. He needs to find a group of "trans" friends" and they can talk around the clock about their gender identities and the cruelty and insensitivity of a world that "deadnames" them.