Eden C. Stein
Suddenly, we live in a world where the majority of teens and adults walk around with powerful computers that have the capacity to communicate instantaneously with anyone virtually anywhere in the world. Those of us who have lived the transition of communication from handwritten letters, which could take a week to arrive, to text messaging; of research using hardbound copies of Encyclopedia Britannica and visits to the library, to instantaneous Google search; of composition from writing by hand or typing with carbon papers, to Google Drive; and of entertainment by watching television shows at prescribed times, to streaming any show or episode at will, are motivated to ask: What are the effects of these profound changes in digital technology on the development of human beings and society? How are young people being impacted by growing up in a digital world, and what does the future hold for them? And, as many who have come before us have asked during times of profound technological change: Does technology improve our lives? What are the costs of this new and overwhelming technology to our individual lives and our society?
