Part of it, no doubt, is due to the greatly increased information about the world and themselves that they have received via internet and cell phone.

But part too may be due ( let me tune up my one string banjo here) to the greatly decreased exposure to things like lead, cadmium, and mercury that the latest generation has received relative to earlier generations. Lead was banned in paint (1978) and in gasoline (1985). Fluoride treatments have greatly reduced dental cavities, with resulting reduction in the use of amalgam fillings in children’s teeth which, incidentally, less than half of dentists still use. Cadmium plated hardware is no longer used in the home. The ever present fragile, breakable mercury medical thermometer is nearly extinct in the home and in hospitals. Only the stupidest of science teachers still have mercury barometers in their class rooms. Lead is banned from toys. Men and women much more rarely work in environments that expose them lead and mercury, further reducing prenatal exposures. Suburban homes no longer have “burning barrels” or incinerators in their back yards to use to burn combustible waste streams containing things like paper printed with cadmium inks or broken mercury thermometers like they once did.

Heavy metals, as you may know, wreak havoc in the developing brain. So we have a generation that is enjoying the fruits of environmental, occupational and consumer product regulation. Hopefully they will live longer, prosper more, and reach greater intellectual potential than other generations could have, and will overturn the backward, short sighted policies of the whining, anti-regulatory, stumble bum crews, in whose defense I say, your brain lead levels are showing, you poor things.

These kids have grown up around (and, for some forms, with) on–line media. Twitter, facebook, youtube, and all the ones I’m probably ignorant of are everyday tools for many, if not most or all of them. If you’re comfortable in front of a cell phone recording video to distribute, you’re going to be comfortable in front of a real camera. Having intelligent responses, and informed opinions comes from other places (education), but I’m not surprised at all with their familiarity with media.