My personal take is that while our generation would do well to read a little more prose, the older generation always by rule has to lament the death of their generation by saying the world is going to hell in one of Carrie Bradshaw's Prada handbags.

They don't understand the changing times and so they have to smack it down. My generation and the one immediately following it have access to so much more than previous generations did, and we process information so much quicker than they ever did that I think they really can't keep up with those young whippersnappers.

Put it this way: I'd be willing to bet that on the whole today's 20-somethings have a more complete idea of what it was like for a soldier in World War II from having more access to video clips online and even from playing realistic video games like "Call of Duty" than their parents ever will.

Humanity's biggest problem has always been not being able to look to the other side of a certain discussion or debate, and I'd wager that's the case here as well.

My only problem with the Myspace generation is their lack of grammar skills, such as using punctuation. The Internet became somewhat mainstream when I was still in high school in the 90's, and we misspelled words on purpose as more of a joke than anything else. These kids today simply don't know how to spell. They probably spend more time reading than kids of my generation did, but what they're reading is not going to improve their writing or reading comprehension skills.

Then there are the baby boomers, many of whom fear technology, like my boss, who insists on printing out anything I send him to read because he "can't read text on a computer monitor." I'm somewhere in the middle. I enjoy a good novel when I'm in the mood, I subscribe to dozens of magazines for bathroom reading, but I like to read my newspaper online (even though my wife subscribes to the physical paper for the coupons and recycles the rest without even looking at it).

I no watt U mean rictor, I mean c'mon the kidz 2day r soooo lazy, I blame the Hip-Hop.....KIDDING!

Christopher makes a good point about reading more, although I am not much of a reader, I do enjoy reading scripts on-line or the occasional Ebook.

Er, just so we're all clear, I'm not the one dumping on the twentysomethings. The book's author is Mark Bauerlein. I'm just bringing it up as a topic.

Don't want the Y-ers hatin' on me!

I think I commented that they could read a little more.

BTW, that article was really good, and was really a refutation of the book. I'd be interesting in reading the book, though I disagree with it. The article's author did a great job of defending the generation, and I particularly loved his discussion of video games. I've long held that people benefit from video games in ways that most parents have zero concept of.

joe,rictor and irrate- awesome insight. IDK what they're talking about that Y'rs can't spel. lol. Seriously, I have trouble now and then but my awesome catholic grammar school beat spelling into me. Both of my 2 detentions were for not finishing my spelling homework. Wut iz up wit dat, haterz?

Availability and widespread use of book text availability online is the next band-aid: portable reading, green reuseable format, and then you could text your friend about what just happened in MacBeth. Out, f'ing spot!