Others worry that we're raising a generation that is losing the ability to conduct logical, coherent discourse. The kindergartens and preschools of America are ready. The Wall Street Journal reports that KinderCare Learning Centers has computers in all of its 1,151 child-care centers, while another offers computer training to children as young as 2. The Journal also reports a surge in the sale of software for babies. If he falls behind he'll be lost.
Commercial interests are happy to cash in on parents who push legitimate concerns to such extremes.
By the time kids reach adolescence, though, parental obsession may swing in the opposite direction. It is estimated that nearly one third of America's 20 million teenagers use the Internet. Many of those are more comfortable with digital media than their parents are. Often the worry is not whether they are coping with the new information technology, but what they are doing with it that their parents don't know about. And then there is the fear of nerdiness.