A WSJ piece looks at research on young people and how technology has altered the way they think, behave, and process information. I've not read the original research yet, just this column about it. Some interesting stuff:

The research paints a generally encouraging picture. Those in the 12- to 30-year-old cohort prize freedom of choice, like to customize everything they do, collaborate, value integrity, and can live more easily than their parents with information overload and constant innovation. Mr. Tapscott argues that in contrast to earlier generations that took in information passively, such as through television, this generation "has been flooded with information, and learning to access, sort, categorize and remember it all has enhanced their intelligence." They "have had to search for, rather than simply look at, information."

There is some suggestion of how patient younger people will be with Obama if he reverts to "politics as usual," as well as interesting ideas on how people learn. If I read the updated Growing Up Digital I will blog about it in more detail, but my own sense from other data is young people learn in very different ways that drive some of us crazy.

My take -- they tend to be skimmers rather than deep readers, searchers rather than seekers, and are more capable at learning about something than they are learned in the classical sense. What does that all mean? Tomorrow, more thoughts.