Through no fault of their own, today's children now find themselves in a position where they do not have to think as much as children of generations that preceded them. It's a sign of progress, but if we don't pay attention to it, it could have a detrimental impact on the future of our adolescence. New technologies like tablets and smartphones make information so instantaneous that a new fact or idea can be transmitted to a child with almost no effort, and regurgitated before they even have time to think about it or to question it. Technology is, in many ways, a good thing, but it also brings new responsibilities. While today's kids probably need to know how to navigate smart devices, it's up to us to ensure they also learn to think and not just regurgitate. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Today we'll take a closer look at this potential problem and think about what can be done about it. The situation: You might be happy to hear that, overall, we've done a lot of progress in terms of teaching kids to not only regurgitate information, but actually think about it. How so? Well, the education system was such that more emphasis was placed on memorization than contemplation. Students were encouraged to memorize facts, names, dates, and numbers, but little time was spent teaching them to contextualize this information and use it productively. We are making progress in this regard. For example, even the controversial move toward Common Core (an educational overhaul that took effect in 2009) is at least in part designed to teach kids to actually think and be able to explain the conclusions they draw in the classroom. This is not to say that the Common Core is perfect, just that it at least tries to make important and timely provisions for a new generation of students who certainly need it. It's proactive to say the least, especially considering the fact that children spend most of their waking hours at school throughout the week, but it's not enough to change their thinking if in fact that's all that's done about it. Constant access to technology at home could potentially threaten the way children think, even if they receive a good education at school. Let's look at some stats, shall we? For starters, about forty percent of children ages thirteen and older have access to a smartphone. It's pretty amazing, isn't it? But wait. Not only do forty percent of children ages thirteen and older have access to a smartphone, but approximately 90 percent of children in the same age group have at least occasional access to a phone or tablet with an Internet connection. That 91% of children with access to mobile Internet spend approximately two hours per day on their devices. Granted, some of that time may or may not be spent on school work, but we're nonetheless talking about 120 minutes of unfiltered access to information. The point of these statistics is not to demonize access to technology, but to highlight how easy it is for kids to let their phones do the thinking for them. There's little reason to think about the answer to a question when you can learn almost anything in seconds. Of course, there is also the fact that information found on the Internet is not always known for its accuracy. When the.