Tools that change the way we think

In the age of ever-electronic evolution, silicon suffusion, wherein  the entire sum of vast culture and intellect, knowledge and information of our species, mankind thru out the epochs, is available at our keyboard-pecking fingertips, technologies have indeed fostered radical and rapid change in our daily lives as well as thought processes. How we learn and in many ways, how we think. Our generation (not that I like sweeping categorizations) including myself of course, utilize a litany of smart-powered tech from internet to portable computers, phones to tablets etc. modern technology has undeniably chiseled Gen Y's (ultimately nearly every human being with access to such) mechanisms of critical thinking/comprehension. I personally embrace technology as a tool for learning, whether it be for academic, scholarly concepts, assistance with school, or recreational facts/activities, the internet has enabled me to glean a sum of knowledge unparallel to our ancestors, heck our parents for the majority of their lives.  As implied by the sources above, modern generation Y’rs prefer their consumption of knowledge via the backlight monitors of a computer-screen unlike the tried and true means of our progenitors, our parents who were limited to paperbacks and hardbound texts. Such convenience negatively influences the learning processes of the Y’rs who are more prone to a Google searched un-researched/internet vomited answers then one genuinely composed from traditional, now old-fashioned practices of book reading and then reasoned conclusions via novel critical thinking. I submit this is absolutely incorrect. I do in fact primarily utilize the internet for many of my learning/academic needs but to think convenience/instant results bereaves us of our critical thinking is ludicrous, in my opinion a machination of some remaining stubborn stalwart ludites of Gen X, as well as W. But, again, i don't like sweeping generalizations. The internet today is merely a digitized library of the grandest scale, sure it is easily possible to drown in superfluous arguably useless info, but nothing differs from the days of old in terms of said info/info gathering, the internet is simply a highly optimized porthole to any info that was encapsulated in physical media like that of textbooks from Gen X days of past. I have always utilized multiple searches on a given task/multiple perspectives for any research, never completely copying and pasting the results produced by the internet. I have and always will construct my own opinions from knowledge presented by various sources, always critically think. Really all that seperates our means of thinking, the pools of knowledge between our generation and the past is the location/accessibility of information. A book bound library or digitized one, the internet itself may have made knowledge rapidly available at the press of a mouse button,  but ultimately i believe it has only modified the way we gather our content not the thinking process. It has always been our responsibility to dutifully and critically comprehend materials, physical or digitized, the medium doesn't factor into the equation as it is the individual who is required to think. Whether it be physically jotting down word for word from a textbook or copying and pasting from the internet, the individual is responsible for such plagiarized actions, robbing themselves of thought, critical self-conclusion/comprehension, the way in which they think. Technology, always changing, always developing like people themselves, may allow light-speed information gathering on an unparallelled level, but it is the individual who is responsible, who constructs their own critical thinking process, not the tools, that ultimately change the way we think.   

INFORMAL SOURCES
Source one: http://ielts.host-race.net/writing/essays/44-difference-between-generations

Source two: http://www.english-test.net/forum/ftopic53148.html