Evolution. Homo-digitas vs. Homo sapien

The evolution of human intelligence and the 'new skills' of using the internet is under heavy research. Here are a few recent articles of interest ("From ape to homo-digitas?", "Intelligence in the Internet Age" ). These 'new skills' are knowing how to effectively search on the web, heavy multitasking, compiling and organized vast amounts of information in a structured manner, and perform analysis/evaluation on retrieved information to derive an reasonably intelligent conclusion in a timely manner are important modern survival skills. All this while reading a newspaper, watching a DVD or cable TV (or both simultaneously, while also possibly listening to music) without compromising any of these tasks.

All the above must be done while being able to sort through all the junk information that constantly bombards us daily from all directions. This is creating a new 'skeptical analysis' skill when reading and absorbing information. In other words, don't believe everything you read, be skeptical and know what is good information. Our kids are acquiring this skill through their natural modern digital environment. We must learn this skill or acquire it through self habitual change.

How many times have you read a document or specification where you detected a 'copy & paste' for the most important parts. This used to be called plagiarism, however, today, it takes quite a bit more skill to detect this scenario due to the ease of acquiring digital information. Like my Dad always told me, 'read the newspaper everyday, it will make you smarter.' To this day, I still live by his advise with a few slight modifications. I still subscribe and read the physical newspaper daily however, I also read articles, websites, mags, etc. on a daily basis.