The whole COVID made the kids dumb is just the newest excuse in a long line. Before that it were phones, computers, calculators and probably a lot more. My kids are from the new generation, and they're doing just fine.

So just like every generation before us then...? Socrates 400 BC:

The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.