Cognitive Crisis Narrows Children's Imagination Space

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The imagination space of Indonesian children seems to be narrowing. When asked about their aspirations, the answers are increasingly uniform, such as content creator, YouTuber, or influencer. For the Indonesia Health Development Center (IHDC), this uniformity is not just a shift in career preferences, but a sign that children's ability to imagine and map out their future is being reduced by the deluge of digital information and the weakness of cognitive development foundations.

The health research agency introduced the term 'silent cognitive' burden, which refers to the slowly progressing cognitive burden that is not widely realized, but potentially erodes the quality of Indonesia's human resources in the future. IHDC considers this issue not only related to academic ability, but also the capacity of children to think critically, imagine, and design their future orientation.

Executive Director of IHDC, Ray Wagiu Basrowi, said that until now, the development of children is mostly measured through physical health indicators and academic achievements. However, according to him, there are other capacities that have not been widely considered, namely the neurocognitive ability that allows children to learn effectively, solve problems, be creative, and build future orientation.

"We from IHDC want to propose a new paradigm, that when measuring the future of Indonesian children, don't just measure report card grades, don't just IQ and EQ, also measure the ability of children to map out their future," said Executive Director of IHDC, Ray Wagiu Basrowi in the Strategic Studies Series presentation at Restoran Beautika, Panglima Polim, South Jakarta, Thursday, July 23, 2026.

Ray referred to this ability as Cognitive and Future Imaginative Capacity, which is the neurocognitive capacity that allows a child to learn effectively, think critically, solve problems, be creative, and build future orientation. According to him, this capacity is an important foundation for the birth of an innovative and productive generation.

However, this capacity is now facing threats from four health issues that are often considered to stand alone, namely uncorrected refractive errors, iron deficiency, protein deficiency, and behavioral disorders. According to IHDC, these four factors mutually influence the brain development and learning process of children.

In his presentation, Ray explained that these issues not only reduce learning ability, but also affect the way children filter information in the digital era.

According to him, children now receive a much larger amount of information compared to previous generations. The problem is, the ability to conduct critical review does not develop as quickly as the information they receive.

"Indonesian children receive more and more information, but their ability to conduct critical review does not develop. Children are not yet able to distinguish which information is good, which information is true, and which information can be absorbed as a provision to map out their future," said Ray.

IHDC considers the ability to think critically as the initial stage before a child is able to build future imagination. Without the ability to filter information, children will be more inclined to follow what appears most frequently in front of them, rather than building aspirations based on mature thinking processes.

Ray believes this condition also affects the way children build imagination about the future. When daily sources of information are dominated by uniform content, the emerging choices for aspirations become increasingly limited.

"Nowadays, most children want to be a YouTuber, personal blogger, or influencer. Because that source of information is hammered until their imagination sees what they see most often," said Arya.

He gave an example, children now see the lives of content creators far more often than other professions such as farmers, fishermen, teachers, or researchers. According to him, this condition makes the imagination space for children regarding future choices increasingly narrow.

However, IHDC considers that this issue cannot be solved simply by limiting access to social media. According to Ray, government regulations, including restrictions on digital media access for children, only reduce one of the risk factors. On the other hand, protective factors such as sufficient nutrition, eye health, mental health, and family upbringing patterns still need to be strengthened for children's thinking capacity to develop optimally.

"Government regulations only block risk factors. But protective factors also need to be resolved, starting from refractive disorders, protein adequacy, iron, to parenting and child behavioral health," said Ray.

Chairman of the IHDC Advisory Board and former Minister of Health for the 2014-2019 period, Nila F. Moeloek, stated that these four health issues have often been viewed as individual problems. However, if experienced by millions of children at the same time, the impact can affect the quality of Indonesia's human capital. "What is lost is not only grades, but also the potential to think, innovate, and build the future," said Nila.

IHDC estimates that more than eight million children in Indonesia suffer from uncorrected refractive disorders. On the other hand, more than seven million toddlers are estimated to have iron deficiency, while more than 300,000 school-age children face anxiety disorders. According to the institution, these conditions have the potential to be hidden inhibitors for Indonesia's competitiveness if not addressed early.

IHDC also encourages a paradigm shift in child development. Policy focus, according to them, should not only stop at disease prevention. Children need to be guided on brain development from school age through vision disorder screening, iron deficiency anemia prevention, protein fulfillment, and early detection of behavioral disorders as part of human capital development strategies.

Read: ADHD: A Silent Struggle for People Suffering from Attention Disorder

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