Internet generation leave parents behind

wow.. stunning numbers I think. Hmm.. when I was that age I think I just had a book.. or something. Now I cannot imagine my day to day life without "instant connections" and information. I always wonder what the generation after will have to compare with..

today information is dripping from everywhere, and today's kids will grow knowing more than the best scholars would have achieved a century ago

really, I bet the next generation will look at us right now as prehistory, or pre-web 3.0-tory

six hours a day?! How do these kids possibly find time to do that? Back in my day school was far too long and time-consuming and sleep was far too necessary...

After a long day on the computer at work, I CRAVE real human interaction. I love the information and entertainment the Internet provides, yet I feel my social aptitude dwindle each time I look at the damn screen for too long. Kids are even more impressionable than adults and, while technology will always be a large part of future generations, it's so important to moderate.

sure internet can help with homework, but I don't know how much homework from primary school really needs that kind of internet research - it's more likely to make the whole process longer. Having said that, learning the skills to sift through so much internet info for research is very useful these days.

This looks normal to me and something also that cannot be avoided if you still want to live in this world not as an hermite

well i dont know about america but this statement in the uk : 'A quarter of five-year-olds have the internet in their room. One in three eight-year olds have a mobile phone' is just not true, i do not know any five year olds with let alone a computer in their room. i have seen young kids the age of 10 using mobiles and only once ever someone below that age, the statement that one in three has a mobile seems a bit exadurated.

OK, so my previous post had nothing to do with the topic at hand. Never stopped me before. I have two kids, 15 and 10. Both have laptops with Internet access, but neither is allowed to use them in their rooms. They can surf a little and play online games when they are in the family room when one of their parents is in the room with them and able to swoop down beside them at any given moment to rescue them from dangerous ideologies (OK, porn) if something inappropriate is either sought out or pops up accidentally (I have learned that the word "cheerleader," for example can not be entered into ANY kind of search string, and the word "nurse" is a close second.).

The oldest received her first phone at 13 but has had it confiscated almost as long as she has been able to use it for the simple reason that she can't seem to text less than 100 messages a day. When I first heard about texting I never thought it had a chance. Why would anybody ever want to send messages that short to each other. WRONG! Now ALL messages are that short. Except mine, obviously.

I started using a computer when one lab was installed with 20 macs to serve an entire Ivy League campus. Those few of us with the courage to use it felt that we had conquered the world for exactly two reasons: 1) We no longer had to use "carbon paper" (raise your hand if you know what that is? O.K., and between you two, which of you has actually ever USED it?) to make more than one copy of a term paper, and 2) (far more importantly) we were a few dozen out of literally thousands of students who could edit a previous draft without having to RETYPE THE ENTIRE PAPER! (or at least a page or three -- depending on the nature of the error since you had to make sure that the first and last line of the page stayed the same so you didn't have to retype the previous or succeeding pages.

And we had to WALK the five miles to campus in three feet of snow, uphill both ways...

I had my first phone when I was 16, but I have have been surfing the net since I was about 9. Now I am 18, and I use it wayyyy to much. I say I spend more time on a computer than I do at a whole day of school. So more than 7 hours a day.

Internet skills improve and face to face skills decline. Also, an amazing amount of rude public behavior and cursing in public places has manifested itself. Is it because of over reliance on the internet during the most formative years when social skill development is most critical? I'm just wondering.

there are always exceptions, but in general its well known

EIGHT YEAR OLDS HAVE CELL PHONES?!?!?!?!?! That's a scary fact and that's definitely unnecessary! What the hell does an eight year old need a cell phone for? They're in school most of the day and then come home or go to a friends. HOw hard is it to keep track of an eight year old child!??!?!?!?!?!?! I don't think you need a cell phone until the age of at least 16...18...or when you start driving

My 20 month old cousin knows how to use her mother's iPhone...she knows how to press that button and then slide to unlock and finger through pictures

the internet and tele are addictive.
we just got comcast ondemand for the apartment, and since school hasn't started again yet for me, I watch a lot of tv.

It's made us more "connected" to people but I don't think it improves people skills.

i spend around 12 hours a day online. but its either because of current. or my job :D

I had a computer when I was around five. It was our families first computer and they justified the purchase for my education. God bless them for that. I wish that they hadn't cut off my internet access when I needed it most for homework at around thirteen. It was funny but as soon as my mother took continuing education the internet came back. Though I was barred form socializing on it until essentialy after high school. I suppose thats why I clack so much here at current.

I remember when I was in middle school I had an 8088 which I used to host a renegade server, then came my... well, 'someones' college login information and I could hit gopher. Gopher was awesome. do a gopher search for "tools for surfing the web" brought you to a UofMichigan result which contained a web browser you could use to access all 12 pages on the internet.

I consider myself part of the internet generation. Todays kids are part of the web generation.

I think I'm one of the rare exceptions to the internet world these days.

I began surfing the net on a Tandy when I was around 6.

Obviously on a dos based computer the only thing I could access were forums and hints for video games I played.

there was not much information on the net, or at least it wasn't obvious and easy to get to.

I'm grateful that my son will grow up with access to any information he needs, but I think like any parent a limit has to be set on the amount of time at the computer and the activities.