The Children of Cyberspace

The Children of Cyberspace: Old Fogies by Their 20s

By BRAD STONE

The New York Times. Published: January 10, 2010

The article mainly talks about how today's fast-pacing technology is creating "mini-generation gaps" with children, making each group "uniquely influenced by the tech tools available in their formative stages of development". It mentions that groups of people with as little as three to four years apart, have completely different experiences with technology.

An interesting remark is one by Dr. Rosen, which says that "the newest generations, unlike their older peers, will expect an instant response from everyone they communicate with, and won't have the patience for anything less".  This is not only something that I agree on, but something that I have personally experienced with my parents when I was younger. It also seems that technology is also making newer generations to be more accelerated in every way, they are involved in much more activities than previous generations and have less "free time" to do spontaneous activities.

Dr. Ito mentions brings an interesting point about how "children who play these [virtual] games would see less of a distinction between their online friends and real friends; virtually socializing might be just as fulfilling as a Friday night Party".

The article also talks about how children tend to be more talented at multitasking than their predecessors, something that can be seen as positive, but it is also noted that they are slightly less capable of concentrating on a single subject for a long time.

Finally, Mr. Rainie mentions that "If it's something you grow up with, you have a completely different comfort with it than someone who has had to unlearn something about the world". This is very true, as technology changes so rapidly these days, people have to get used to adopt these changes and forget what they used to do before.