Internet-Savvy Kids Will Someday Rule the World

StormLogicLLC

Oh no. They're going to be "quick-acting multitaskers who count on the Internet as their external brain and who approach problems in a different way from their elders," according to a summary of the latest technology survey from the Pew Research Center.

Ah, but there's a flip side to being quick with your tracking finger:

The report, The Future of The Internet (PDF), states that "constantly connected teens and young adults will thirst for instant gratification and often make quick, shallow choices."

(Looks like Lindsay Lohan is a trail-blazer).

55 percent of the experts surveyed said that contemporary children are "wired differently" as a result of their exposure to technology, and that this "hyperconnectivity" is a positive thing.

42 percent, however, said it was a bad thing because:

They do not retain information; they spend most of their energy sharing short social messages, being entertained, and being distracted away from deep engagement with people and knowledge. They lack deep-thinking capabilities; they lack face-to-face social skills; they depend in unhealthy ways on the internet and mobile devices to function ...

Party poopers.

Experts predicted that, in the future, information will be so easy to retrieve quickly that people's brains will work differently -- "rewired to adapt to the new information-processing skills they will need to survive in this environment."

There could thus be a future of technological haves and have-nots in which " ... new winners and losers will emerge in this reconfigured environment."

Don't be a loser. Don't use Android products.

[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]