Leave it to people who sit around noticing the circulation at the library is down and that there are many less people utilizing the printed matter these days to blame it on technology. Why, we should loathe the day Guttenberg developed his press - those old wood-cut manuscripts had much more passion and character. But tech may be making our younger generation stupid - or so some critics may say.

According to the YPulse story:

Teens expect instant answers from keyword searches and Wikipedia entries. Communicating virtually or consuming video content online usually requires a shorter format. Has growing up using tools that offer instant feedback and communication made Gen Y impatient and lazy when it comes to research and writing?

This whole issue will be over, of course, in 30 years when the ‘heathen’ tech-haters have moved on to quieter, less vocal times. In the interim however, I’d say people on the average know more that is going on - in the world - than any other time in history. The newspaper and evening news didn’t cut it - and CNN isn’t everywhere all the time - well, now it is. The net has changed the reading habits of all of us - setting up our Google homepages and MyYahoo! pages in order to keep all of the most important topics on one page (or several tabs of pages) of RSS feeds from the things you keep your mind on.

We are exposed to literally hundreds of stories each day - and the number only seems to increase. It’s true, even when watching CNN, there’s the story, there’s an inset story, and there is the scroller at the bottom, going on and on with other stories as well. Then you are also on the internet at the same time on CNN.com checking out the story and have many other things on the page which may also get at least a split second of your time.

This new world allows people to ‘dabble’ in a million different topics, become an expert by watching others teach on YouTube Videos, HowCast Videos, WikiHow Articles and Wikipedia entries. The depth of material is there when you need it.

That is the difference. In recent history, we accumulated knowledge. In this new century, we have more indexing and accessibility to data on-demand than ever before existed. With this ability to access information from anywhere, anytime on nearly any topic, the mind is free to only index information available from external sources and quickly allow you to locate them.

You’d be amazed the wealth of information you compile on your computer over time if you use any type of software like Google Desktop. It’s pretty astounding. If you’d really like to see what type of websurfing habits you have, you can always use OpenDNS and utilize their software to track your time and connections online - allowing you to see the wild number of websites you actually traverse in a day.

Until next time - keep up the work kids. Digitize the libraries and turn them into museums or coffee shops. Give Google the rights and turn out the lights. We live in a digital world. I do not need hands to paper. I’ve got a great LCD.

Source: YPulse: Is Tech Making Gen Y Dumb?