Ask any European about their perceptions of American culture and people, and they'll likely say the United States has some quirks. From apartment buildings to giving strangers compliments to our large portion sizes, the differences can feel innumerable, including how Americans travel by car across the country.

A curious British Redditor asked Americans whether they "actually consider a 3-hour drive 'short'?" They explained, "I'm from the UK, and growing up, visiting my grandparents (who lived 3 hours away) was a massive yearly event. It felt like a serious expedition."

They added that Europeans and Americans have very different perspectives on what qualifies as a "long" or "short" car ride.

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"I keep seeing Americans say they drive 3-4 hours just for a weekend visit or even a day trip," they wrote. "Is this an exaggeration, or is my European brain just not comprehending the scale? How do you not go insane driving that long regularly?"

To help Europeans understand, one American Reddit user kindly explained how the geography of the U.S. differs from that of Europe:

"The U.S. is also, geographically, much bigger and more spread out, especially as you head west. The original states (New England and the upper part of the Mid-Atlantic) are more like Europe, where you can drive a few hours and get to a completely different (though similar) place, whereas there are some southeastern, midwestern, and western states where you can drive for 3 hours and still see your house from there."

The size of America versus Europe.Image via Reddit/caseycooke

Another major difference is that American cars are built for longer trips. One Redditor added:

"We tend to buy cars more suited for longer distance highway travel too. Very small hatchback type cars popular in the UK and other European countries are generally terrible for that. They get tons of road noise and vibration and are super fatiguing to drive long distances. Our best selling vehicle, the Ford F150 is a road trip champion."

Beyond that, roads in the U.S. are also designed for long hauls, especially when compared with those in the UK and elsewhere in Europe. Another Redditor noted:

"I think a major difference is that America has the space to build a lot of road infrastructure. The States have had automatic gears and cruise control in their cars as standard for years and years. The roads in the UK are smaller and have been built around things, way more bendy and twisty. Manual gears were/ are more common as well, although that's slightly changing with modern cars here. Think driving for 3 hours is just feels slightly different in these countries for these reasons."

To further explain what Americans consider a "long" or "short" drive, others chimed in with their own experiences and perspectives:

Driving in the United States.Photo credit: Canva

"3 hour daily commute? Way too long haha. 3 hour drive to a destination spot? SUPER short haha."

"My husband is about to drive about 30 hours (2,000 miles) from the East Coast to Colorado to help his mom out. He'll stay for a week, and then drive back with some stuff that's too expensive to ship. And he doesn't even mind it. Many times, he's driven 6 hours to attend a meeting. Drive out after work one day, stay overnight somewhere, meeting in the morning, stay for lunch, head home. I think the car can find its way itself by now."

"I used to drive 12 hours straight to work twice month, there and back home weeks later. Did that for 7 years. The craziest part of all that is that 90% of all that driving was done going across one state: Texas."

"3-4 hour one way would be maybe once a month thing for me. 90 minutes can be any day."

"Most Americans do not think of a 3 hour drive as something particularly long or unusual. I know many who don't think twice about driving 500 miles a day. Personally I feel like about 350 miles a day is my limit."

Nearly every parent hopes their child will be better off than they are: smarter, more secure, and more well-adjusted. Many parents see this as a stamp of successful parenting, but something has changed for children growing up today. While younger generations are known for their empathy, their cognitive capabilities seem to be lagging behind those of previous generations for the first time in history.

Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath, a teacher turned cognitive neuroscientist who focuses on human learning, appeared before Congress to discuss concerns about cognitive development in children. In his address to the members of Congress, he says, "A sad fact that our generation has to face is this: our kids are less cognitively capable than we were at their age. Since we've been standardizing and measuring cognitive development since the late 1800s, every generation has outperformed their parents, and that's exactly what we want. We want sharper kids."

Student smiling in a classroom, working on a laptop.Photo credit: Canva

Horvath explains that the reason this happens is that each generation has gone to school longer than the previous generation. Gen Z is no exception to the longer duration of time spent in school, but they're the first ones who aren't meeting this normal increase in cognitive development. According to the cognitive neuroscientist, the decline is due to the introduction of screens in the classroom, which started around 2010.

"Across 80 countries, as Jean was just saying, if you look at the data, once countries adopt digital technology widely in schools, performance goes down significantly. To the point where kids who use computers about five hours per day in school for learning purposes will score over two-thirds of a standard deviation less than kids who rarely or never touch tech at school," Horvath reveals.

In most cases, the decline in performance doesn't result in better strategies. The neuroscientist shares that the standardized testing has been adjusted to accommodate lower expectations and shorter attention spans. This is an approach that educators, scientists, and researchers went to Capitol Hill to express wasn't working. But not every country is taking the approach of lowering standards to meet lowered cognitive ability. Denmark went in the opposite direction when it realized their students were slipping behind.

France24 recently interviewed educators in Denmark following their seemingly novel approach to students struggling with cognitive development. Since the beginning of the 2025/2026 school year, Denmark has not only been having students turn in their cellphones, but they've also taken tablets, laptops, and computers out of the classroom. No more digital learning for the majority of the school day. Danes went old school by bringing back physical textbooks, workbooks, and writing assignments. The results have been undeniable. Even the students can't seem to deny the success of the countrywide shift in educational approach.

"I think the biggest issue has been that, because we kind of got rid of the books and started using screens instead, that we've noticed that a lot of the kids have trouble concentrating, so it's pretty easy to swipe with three fingers over to a different screen and have a video game going, for example, in class," Copenhagen English teacher, Islam Dijab tells France24.

Now, instead of computers being part of every lesson, Denmark uses computers very sparingly and with strict supervision. One student says that it has been nice not having screen time at school because she loves to read and write. But it wasn't just the lack of attention span children were developing, they were also developing low self-esteem and poor mental health due to the amount of time spent on devices.

Students focused and ready to learn in........

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