Megan Garber's assessment on Nieman Journalism Lab of the New York Times piece about the wired generation parses the difference between what engages kids and what doesn't -- and how that's changing.
It seems to me that the real dichotomy here — to the extent, of course, that it’s fair to break any complex problem into reductive dualities — is less a matter of focus vs. distraction, and more a matter of the digital age’s spin-off opposition: interest vs. non-interest. Caring vs…lack of.
And another great nugget from the piece:
The web inculcates a follow your bliss approach to learning that seeps, slowly, into the broader realm of information; under its influence, our notion of knowledge is slowly shedding its normative layers.