But the ones on the favorable side of the curve are zooming. Five years ago we already knew that kids learned computer technology more easily than adults. What we're seeing now is that they don't even need to be taught. It is as if children were waiting all these centuries for someone to invent their native language. The first generation of postconsumers has been born.
Adults are more terrified.
They fear losing control to a younger generation that is more digitally nimble. Because parents can't understand what their kids are doing on the Web, there are calls for a level of censorship and control of communication that no dictator has ever enjoyed. There have been hysterical reactions to young cyberpranksters. High technology, just maybe, has started to have a pacifying effect. I don't want to overstate this, but media is starting to provide the thrill, the test, and the ritual we once needed violence to find.