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Out of 700 youth aged 12-17 who participated in the phone survey, 60 percent say they don't consider electronic communications - e-mail, instant messaging, mobile text - to be writing in the formal sense; 63 percent say it has no impact on the writing they do for school and 64 percent report inadvertently using some form of shorthand common to electronic text, including emotions, incorrect grammar or punctuation.

They slip into the informal voice often, and that's really a tightrope because you want them to find their own voice, but the writing must be appropriate," she said. "I've realized they very often write the way they speak and they speak the way they text. And yes, I've had a few students turn in papers with numbers instead of words and letters used inappropriately. It's definitely the texting influence."

Texting language is constantly changing. From the easy-to-decipher "OMG" (oh my God, or oh my gosh), "JK" (just kidding) and "TTYL" (talk to you later), to the more discreet "GTG" (got to go) and "BRB" (be right back), communication by text is basically a game.

"The year we stopped talking to one another." That's what USA Today dubs 2010, in light of the unprecedented use of technology.

We are awash in technology. It's estimated that 93% of Americans now use cell phones or wireless devices. And one-third of those people are using so-called smartphones, which means the users can browse the Web and check e-mail on their phones. According to an industry trade group, from June 2009 to June 2010, cell phone subscribers sent 1.8 trillion text messages. That was up 33% from the year before. In other words, most of us spend our days walking around with our noses buried in our cell phones, BlackBerrys, iPhones, etc.

Reading for pleasure, which has declined among young people in recent decades, enhances thinking and engages the imagination in a way that visual media such as video games and television do not, Greenfield said. How much should schools use new media, versus older techniques such as reading and classroom discussion? "No one medium is good for everything," Greenfield said. "If we want to develop a variety of skills, we need a balanced media diet. Each medium has costs and benefits in terms of what skills each develops."

"As students spend more time with visual media and less time with print, evaluation methods that include visual media will give a better picture of what they actually know,"

"By using more visual media, students will process information better," she said. "However, most visual media are real-time media that do not allow time for reflection, analysis or imagination — those do not get developed by real-time media such as television or video games. Technology is not a panacea in education, because of the skills that are being lost.

This new obsession with technology is particularly evident in teenage generations. Adults often complain about teens constantly texting, and that text lingo has ruined proper english and grammar skills. Less communication is taking place in person or by talking on the phone as texting becomes more popular. The amount of text messages sent last year increased by 50%; data messaging surpassed voice messaging as well. The average length of a phone call decreased from 2.27 minutes to a mere 1.81 minutes. On average, 1,500 text messages are sent a month per cell phone user. The biggest contributor to this cell phone usage increase is, of course, the teenage generation. Text messaging is not the only contributor to the increased usage of technology. Many other individuals play video games, spend time on the internet, or go on social networking sites such as Facebook.  These new forms of entertainment have replaced pervious forms that involved social contact such as board games, or even bowling with friends. Once again, the major contributor to the success of these new forms of entertainment is the teenage generation. The association of members of youth with technology and a new dependence on technology has created much controversy regarding the impact of technology on social life.

While technology has seemed to decrease in physical social contact, it has increased social contact in other ways. It is no longer necessary to write a letter to someone you cannot see in person in order to tell them information. Modern technology has allowed for many other ways of communication other then face to face.  Users of technology can chat online, send text messages or emails to each other, as well as chat with others while playing a video game online. Because of advancements in technology, there is now the ability to instantaneously communicate with others from all over the world. This ability has created a form of global interconnectedness.

Although teachers see a number of advantages in young people's heavy use of digital media (especially in their ability to find information quickly and efficiently), it is the potentially harmful effects that have families, educators and policy makers worried. New York Times' Matt Richtel summarizes these concerns in an article about the studies: "There is a widespread belief among teachers that students' constant use of digital technology is hampering their attention spans and ability to persevere in the face of challenging tasks." Nearly three quarters of the 685 public and private K-12 teachers surveyed in the Common Sense Media online poll believe that students use of entertainment media (including TV, video games, texting and social networking) "has hurt student's attention spans a lot or somewhat." Likewise, in the Pew online survey, which polled 2,462 middle and high school teachers, 87% report that these technologies are creating "an easily distracted generation with short attention spans," and 64% say that digital technologies "do more to distract students than to help them academically

Little or no grammar teaching, cell phone texting, social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, are all being blamed for an increasingly unacceptable number of post-secondary students who can't write.

igital classroom tools like computers, tablets and smartphones offer exciting opportunities to deepen learning through creativity, collaboration and connection, but those very devices can also be distracting to students. Similarly, parents complain that when students are required to complete homework assignments online, it’s a challenge for students to remain on task. The ubiquity of digital technology in all realms of life isn’t going away, but if students don’t learn how to concentrate and shut out distractions, research shows they’ll have a much harder time succeeding in almost every area.

attention is under siege

we have more distractions than ever before, we have to be more focused on cultivating the skills of attention,” said Daniel Goleman, a psychologist and author of Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence

VIDEO SHOWS a line of people trudging up a snow-covered footpath. A shot is heard; the first person in line falls. A voice-over says, "They are killing them like dogs." Another shot, and another body drops to the ground. A Chinese soldier fires his rifle again. Then a group of soldiers examines the bodies. These images were captured in the Himalayas by a member of a mountaineering expedition who claims to have stumbled on the killing. The video first aired on Romanian television, but it only gained worldwide attention when it was posted on YouTube, the video-sharing website. (To view it, go to YouTube.com and type "Tibet, ProTV, China"). Human rights groups say the slain Tibetan refugees included monks, women and children. The Chinese government had claimed the soldiers shot in self-defense after they were attacked by 70 refugees, but the video seems to render that explanation absurd. The U.S. ambassador to China lodged a complaint.

Report var addthis_config = {data_track_clickback: false, ui_click: true, services_compact: "reddit, linkedin, tumblr, pinterest, google_plusone_share, more", services_exclude: "facebook, twitter, print"} November 1, 2012 How Teens Do Research in the Digital World By Kristen Purcell, Lee Rainie, Alan Heaps, Judy Buchanan, Linda Friedrich, Amanda Jacklin, Clara Chen and Kathryn Zickuhr Overview Three-

quarters of AP and NWP teachers say that the internet  and digital search tools have had a “mostly positive” impact on t

eir students’ research habits, but 87% say these technologies are creating an “easily distracted generation with short attention spans” and 64% say today’s digital technologies “do more to distract students than to help them academically.”