{"id":1479697,"date":"2026-04-06T11:06:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T09:06:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ie.edu\/insights\/?post_type=articles&p=1479697"},"modified":"2026-04-06T11:06:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T09:06:22","slug":"cognitive-patience-is-the-skill-of-our-time","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/www.ie.edu\/insights\/articles\/cognitive-patience-is-the-skill-of-our-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Cognitive Patience Is the Skill of Our Time"},"featured_media":1479699,"template":"","meta":{"_has_post_settings":{"highlight_sharing":"default","image_sharing":"default","headline_sharing":"default"}},"schools":[],"areas":[500],"subjects":[418],"class_list":["post-1479697","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","areas-education","subjects-future-of-education"],"custom-fields":{"wpcf-article-leadin":["Cognitive patience is key to resisting AI overreliance, helping restore focus as the foundation of meaningful learning, writes Borja Santos."],"wpcf-article-body":["We are living in an era of accelerated change, where speed, efficiency, and productivity are the norm. Against this backdrop, the concept of cognitive patience is becoming increasingly important in education, work, and mental health. The cognitive neuroscientist Maryanne Wolf first linked this concept to deep reading in 2018. Today, it can be understood as the ability and willingness to set aside quality time to think independently, without distractions, and without relying on digital tools or artificial intelligence.\r\n\r\nI have been teaching a course on communication and public speaking at a university for years. Every year, I ask my students to prepare a presentation about a real-world problem and how they would solve it. This exercise provides me with a unique glimpse into the concerns of their generation, in addition to developing their communication skills.\r\n\r\nEight or nine years ago, recycling, pollution, and environmental sustainability were the dominant themes. Four or five years ago, mental health took center stage, in a context marked by the pandemic and the structural loneliness of university life. However, two or three years ago, I began to notice a major shift: nearly half of their presentations focused on the difficulties they had with concentration and on their addiction to social media and mobile devices.\r\n\r\nAccording to the Pew Research Center, about 48% of young people say that social media has a mostly negative impact<\/a> on people their age. This coincides with an increase in cases of anxiety and a decline in sustained attention span due to social media and AI. As early as 2018, a study found<\/a> that 54% of Millennials and Gen Z reported not performing as well as they should and struggling to reach their full potential. I am convinced that this figure is even higher today. Gloria Mark, a researcher at the University of California, documented how the average sustained attention span for a task has dropped from 150 seconds in 2004 to just 40 seconds in more recent measurements.\r\n\r\nThis decline is deeply concerning. It directly affects learning quality, erodes interpersonal relationships, undermines mental health, and even threatens the functioning of our democracies, which depend on citizens who are capable of reading, deliberating, and engaging in complex arguments. This lack of focus is not just a problem of self-discipline, however. It is a structural phenomenon driven by technological environments that have been specifically designed to capture and fragment our attention<\/a>.\r\n\r\nThis year, however, my students\u2019 discourse has evolved. Alongside their worries about attentiveness, two new major issues have emerged. First, their reliance on generative artificial intelligence for most of their daily activities, and second, the pressure to perform quickly and efficiently and deliver immediate results, pushing the learning process into the background. Despite the benefits of these generative AI tools, young people also report more risks: an average of 68% say they worry about becoming overly reliant on these tools<\/a> in their daily lives. My students don\u2019t just perceive this phenomenon; they suffer from it.\r\n
The brain is not designed to operate in a state of constant stimulation.<\/blockquote>\r\nWhat I am now observing in my classes adds a new layer to this phenomenon. Generative artificial intelligence holds a powerful allure: quick results without the process. Increasingly, both students and working professionals tend to offload their thought processes before they have even engaged in them. They ask AI to organize, reason, and synthesize before formulating their own ideas.\r\n\r\nThis behavior is what Professor Barbara Oakley defines as \u201c<\/em>cognitive offloading<\/a>,\u201d<\/em> the tendency to delegate mental or cognitive processes to external tools. While this approach may be efficient in many situations, it has led to widespread outsourcing of cognitive effort. The sociologist Michael Gerlich published a study<\/a> that found a negative correlation between the constant use of AI tools and critical thinking skills, largely driven by growing reliance on externalizing cognitive processes. This new problem resembles the \u201cGoogle Effect<\/a>\u201d or \u201cDigital Amnesia\u201d: instead of retaining information, we only remember where to find it. Therefore, the issue is not the tool itself, but the sequence in which it is used. When the result precedes thought, cognition is impaired.\r\n\r\nThis is where cognitive patience becomes an essential skill. It was something my students called for in their discussions, and it applies equally to many professional contexts. I propose adopting a small but significant protocol: before opening any AI tool, pause briefly, take a pen and paper, and define your objective, outline your reasoning, and state your position. This seemingly simple gesture radically changes the quality of subsequent interactions with technology, preventing you from falling into a form of cognitive laziness and encouraging you to critically evaluate your own thinking. It is not about efficiency; it is about cognitive agency. More importantly, it is about ceasing to be passive recipients of answers and becoming active agents who formulate, evaluate, and refine ideas.\r\n\r\nNeuroscience provides compelling support for this idea. The brain is not designed to operate in a state of constant stimulation; it needs periods of disconnection to consolidate learning, process emotions, and generate creative thinking. Several studies have shown that memory and creative processes are actually strengthened during rest periods<\/a>, when the brain reorganizes and consolidates information. These periods of digital disconnection also help strengthen the Default Mode Network<\/a>, fostering introspection and aiding the brain in problem-solving and sustaining long-term mental health. Many civil society organizations are promoting the \u201cOff Movement<\/a>,\u201d which aims to achieve precisely this.\r\n\r\nConversely, prolonged and uninterrupted exposure to screens and digital stimuli is associated with higher levels of anxiety and depression, poorer sleep quality, more sedentary lifestyles, and lower academic performance. This has come to be known as \u201c<\/em>the social media paradox.\u201d<\/em> According to a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine<\/em> in 2017, the 25% of users who were most active on social media were three times more likely<\/a> to be among the 25% who reported feeling the loneliest, increasing their risk of depression and anxiety. Similarly, 45% of young people reported that social media negatively affects the amount of sleep they get<\/a>. This constant overstimulation interferes with sustained concentration and attention.\r\n\r\nPeriods of technological downtime, therefore, are neither a luxury nor a form of nostalgia; they are a physiological prerequisite for optimal cognitive functioning.\r\n\r\nWe should thus rethink how we use generative AI. It is not an all-you-can-eat buffet of immediate answers. First, we need to think, then craft a prompt with a deliberately limited scope. The quality of the thought that precedes the prompt determines the quality of the results. In this sense, artificial intelligence has the capacity to enhance or erode our cognitive abilities<\/a>. AI amplifies what we have within us. If we bring our own ideas, it develops them; if we come empty-handed, it amplifies the void.\r\n\r\nCognitive patience must be integrated into our learning and work environments. Perhaps we should even begin to speak of cognitive justice: the right of students and professionals to enjoy periods of uninterrupted concentration and meaningful work. In universities and companies, there is frequent discussion of innovation, creativity, and productivity, but far less attention to the cognitive conditions that enable them. Safeguarding time for thinking is neither a regressive measure nor an act of resistance to progress. We must preserve the cognitive capacities that fuel innovation if we are to sustain it.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n\u00a9 IE Insights."],"wpcf-audio-article":["https:\/\/www.ie.edu\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Santos-Audio-26.mp3"],"wpcf-article-extract":["Cognitive patience is key to resisting AI overreliance, helping restore focus as the foundation of meaningful learning, writes Borja Santos."],"wpcf-article-extract-enable":["1"]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ie.edu\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles\/1479697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ie.edu\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ie.edu\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/articles"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ie.edu\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1479699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ie.edu\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1479697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"schools","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ie.edu\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/schools?post=1479697"},{"taxonomy":"areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ie.edu\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/areas?post=1479697"},{"taxonomy":"subjects","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ie.edu\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/subjects?post=1479697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}