The geek shall inherit the earth

I came across an interesting piece in the New York Times about increasing generation gaps around experience and expectations of technology and consequent world view and attention span.

"Researchers [...] theorize that the ever-accelerating pace of technological change may be minting a series of mini-generation gaps, with each group of children uniquely influenced by the tech tools available in their formative stages of development.

“People two, three or four years apart are having completely different experiences with technology,” said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project.

One obvious result is that younger generations are going to have some very peculiar and unique expectations about the world. My friend’s three-year-old, for example, has become so accustomed to her father’s multitouch iPhone screen that she approaches laptops by swiping her fingers across the screen, expecting a reaction."

The Children of Cyberspace: Old Fogies by Their 20s