“The findings of this article are a bit troublesome to first take in. Dr. Small has some legitimacy to his work through UCLA and his published work on the topic, iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind. Others try to argue that not enough research has been to make the claims that Dr. Small is making.

Through my own experiences teaching both middle and high school students, I tend to agree with Dr. Small’s findings that the brain is not wired the same for students coming up now versus 20 years ago. A huge aspect of socialization is the process of learning how to interpret the non-visual cues that occur in both conversation and actions. This was a key to learning to function correctly in society as I was coming up. Today I see students in my classroom that can not interpret the most basic of non-visual cues (i.e. smiles, frowns, etc.). They struggle to understand, without words, that someone is pleased with them or upset with them.

A lot of my students also struggle to carry on a conversation with their peers and teachers. Face-to-face communication comes hard for these digital natives. They can clearly articulate themselves in text via e-mail or writing, but can not speak to others in a way that effectively conveys a message that is meaningful.

At first I attributed a lot of this problem to elementary teachers not getting them the correct, meaningful, developmentally necessary education while in their care. I now, thanks to a great lecture I attended by Ian Jukes, understand that the problem is that they obtain information differently than we did. They have 24/7 access to information that just a few years ago had to be researched in a library. They are becoming wired for instant gratification. It has greatly changed the way that education must meet the needs of these students.”