With the relentless rise of AI-powered digital technology, we're seeing growing concerns about our students. These include their declining literacy as well as the ills of digital dependence, disinformation and deepfakes.

When I ask my grad students about some toxic social scenes of digital addiction, their responses are pretty familiar: their own endless scrolling through short videos and social media, and the daily sight of everyone glued to their phones on buses and subways.

These responses are a fitting reflection of our current society. But there’s another side to this narrative -- while people may be staring at their phones, it doesn't mean they're just wasting time. A lot of them are getting information, doing chores with apps, texting friends and family, or consuming entertainment of their choice.

Indeed, we (or is it just me?) often don’t bother making small talk with the strangers next to us. We scroll away, also missing the chance to enjoy the scenery outside the window. Yet, we still manage to connect with the people and things we care about through digital means.

Likewise, when we discuss children's declining literacy, there is often this worry that younger students are losing interest in classic literature or having trouble with some Sino-Korean words (just like how some English words come from Greek or Latin roots). But is this really the dire consequence of digital civilization, and a red flag for all of us?

To me, it’s more of a natural shift. Young people today are trading in pencils, paper and text for touchscreens, videos, images and VR headsets as their primary means of communication. From the perspective of those who have wielded power through the enduring weight of text, this change may seem uncomfortable, even deficient. Yet, from the vantage of the younger generation, it is the text-centric generation that appears woefully lacking in digital fluency.

If these are the benefits and drawbacks of the fourth industrial revolution -- particularly AI technology -- from an educational perspective, let's quickly look at what earlier revolutions did for education. The second industrial revolution, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, introduced electric power and mass production systems. The third industrial revolution -- the information age -- ushered in computers, the internet and all kinds of digital tools with fast processors and big memory.

The second and third industrial revolutions each brought significant changes to education. One major benefit of the second industrial revolution was the expansion of public education. As mass production increased the need for literate workers, governments introduced compulsory education to develop a workforce capable of meeting these demands, expanding educational opportunities across different social strata.

However, each revolution also introduced new inequalities, such as discrepancies in access to resources, prompting debates over the purpose of education. For instance, mass production led to the standardization of education, often overlooking individual talents and creativity. The concentration of educational resources among the wealthy also exacerbated inequities between the "haves" and "have-nots."

The third industrial revolution had its own drawbacks as well. The digital divide became a significant issue, as not all students had equal access to computers or the internet, leading to disparities in educational opportunities. Too much use of digital tools has reduced social interaction, diminishing students' social skills and often leading to isolation and loneliness. Plus, the flood of information online and the lack of classroom support to process it has led to information overload and shorter attention spans, making learning even harder.

Now, in the midst of the fourth industrial age -- driven by AI -- we find ourselves facing concerns about education while clinging to traditions, much like during previous transitions from one revolution to the next. That is, the worries of one generation often become the traditions of the next -- just as 80s video games, once new and uncertain, have now become a nostalgic cultural commodity.

Not long ago, the digital revolution was seen as a threat to our simple analog lives, but now it’s praised for democratizing knowledge, enabling online learning, and expanding education. Today, the fourth industrial revolution is driving education forward with innovations like AI tutors, dashboards and smart content creation tools, making learning more personalized and effective. However, AI also introduces renewed ethical challenges in addressing issues like privacy, bias, and the role of human judgment and creativity. Concerns about digital inequity and dependence also remain very real.

As we fret over the impact of AI on education, I can’t help but wonder: When the fifth industrial revolution comes along, will we look back on today’s tech-focused education as the "good old days," just as we always romanticize our past? This cycle reminds us to approach technological change not only with caution but also with curiosity and an open mind, recognizing that the future we fear today might one day become the past we celebrate.

Lim Woong

Lim Woong is a professor of the Graduate School of Education at Yonsei University in Seoul. The views expressed here are the writer’s own. -- Ed.