Very interesting. The woman promoting the use of media as a learning tool seemed utterly out of her depth. One gets the impression Spitzer refrained from destroying her position the same way an adult refrains from bringing their "A" game when participating in sports with children.

Agreed, this was very clear from the beginning.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG, GOOGL) today released the results of the Mobile Voice Study, a look at voice search habits among American smartphone users across different age ranges. Among teens 13-18, 55% use voice search every day.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/teens-use-voice-search-most-even-in-bathroom-googles-mobile-voice-study-finds-279106351.html

Well, bad.

The future of digital culture—yours, mine, and ours—depends on how well we learn to use the media that have infiltrated, amplified, distracted, enriched, and complicated our lives.

Well, your book is mostly about the simple position - guys, corporations made this shit, let's learn to eat with dignity. I have some issues with optimism about fighting tools intentionally made to make you dumber. With search engine that adjust results so you won't see anything that can disturb your current state of mind. With mass media that just lack useful information. trying to find useful scientific information in the field where copyright monsters hourly check all cyberspace and fine authors who attempted to share info for free.

I recently watched the above linked recording. Mr. Spitzer makes numerous good points and recommendations, especially with regards to the distraction that media consumption causes, keeping people from focusing on a topic, or the problem of "copying and pasting stuff instead of understanding it" in depth.

But in one aspect I cannot agree with him: When he points out that the non-usage of navigation computers promotes natural navigation skills this may certainly be correct, but wide area navigation without computers is simply a skill not required by most people anymore. Would he also suggest to go on mushroom forays to train the brain in pattern recognition of edible mushrooms? To milk cows to acquire the motor skills to efficiently milk cows? To learn animal noises to distinguish the harmless from the potentially dangerous?

I think Mr. Spitzer is sometimes ignoring the fact that the range of skills useful to the majority of people is ever changing over time. Ask some non-media-distracted/educated native from North Sentinel island to travel from one end of Tokyo to the other, and I'm sure he will fail miserably in comparison to average Joe from the tribe of Playstation.

Heavy device use during young childhood could interfere with development of empathy, social and problem solving skills that are typically obtained by exploring, unstructured play and interacting with friends.

"These devices also may replace the hands-on activities important for the development of sensorimotor and visual-motor skills, which are important for the learning and application of maths and science."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11382711/Using-iPads-to-pacify-children-may-harm-their-development-say-scientists.html

The study, from researchers at the University of Waterloo and published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior, suggests that smartphone users who are intuitive thinkers — more prone to relying on gut feelings and instincts when making decisions — frequently use their device’s search engine rather than their own brainpower. Smartphones allow them to be even lazier than they would otherwise be.

“Our research provides support for an association between heavy smartphone use and lowered intelligence,” said Pennycook. “Whether smartphones actually decrease intelligence is still an open question that requires future research.”

https://uwaterloo.ca/news/news/reliance-smartphones-linked-lazy-thinking

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563215001272

As 71 percent of consumers are equally as interested in quantifying themselves as they are in wearables, quantification of behavior today starts with wearables. But people see a range of cloud-based services giving them the potential to live healthier and longer lives – whether the technology can be worn or not.

http://www.ericsson.com/news/150312-living-longer_244069647_c

Dr Zaheer Hussain, lecturer in Psychology at Derby, co-authored what is believed to be the UK’s first research study into smartphone addiction and its related psychological characteristics, which clearly shows that the more you use a smartphone, the higher the risk of becoming addicted.

He said: “The study informs us about smartphone overuse and the impact on psychological well-being. We now use smartphones on a daily basis and for various tasks so being aware of the psychological effects is very important.

The results of the study revealed that 13% of participants were classified as being addicted, with the average user spending 3.6 hours per day on the device. The research also advises that prospective buyers of smartphones should be pre-warned of the potential addictive properties of new technology.

http://www.derby.ac.uk/newsevents/news/archive/news-archive/smartphones-are-addictive--reveals-first-uk-study-from-the-university-of-derby.php

LOL, exactly @VK
This might be the answer on your post from October 2014:

They do it for good. May be. Or not.

I think they did it just for the reason that most of the kids buy an Apple device later, instead of Android or something else. Even only 13% of Americans with just an iPhone in the pocket means > 30 million sold devices... and again 30 million only few years later.

And "the things we liked when we were small, we will like also when we're grown".

Nowadays hundreds of millions of people play games on various devices from smartphones to premium PCs built by boutique PC makers. In the future, the number of gamers will increase even further as every newborn child will eventually become a gamer, according to chief exec of Nvidia.

http://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/jen-hsun-huang-every-newborn-human-will-be-a-gamer/

Very interesting theories and I tend to agree with much of what you are saying Vitaliy. I often wonder what the long term effects of google search and the way the user is steered towards the answers google wants them to see. I'm sure this isn't much different than how a library can steer a researcher or a teacher can steer a student, but it definitely seems more direct now. I believe the political and societal results of this are already measurable to a degree. It's a powerful tool for those who control that.