Unlike a baby, which usually cannot control what it observes to any great extent, the young can deliberately seek out maximum gratification online. They can find diversions, they can reinforce pre-existing notions by selectively picking only those sites that reinforce their beliefs, etc. And the young are not learning, they are skimming. A smartphone? It's just a toy you take out and stroke in public.

When you have an infinite amount of "information" at your fingertips you know what you get? Reinforcement of existing beliefs. Think 9/11 was an inside job? Not a problem. There's an app for that. You do realize there's a human slave colony on Mars; Christalmighty, it's right there on the Internet, you just need to open your mind. ... Back when it was all boring and dull and difficult, and you had to -- whatever, sigh, go to the dumb library and fill out like a stupid callslip and get the book and take it to a table. You actually focused on what you were doing.

Yes, a tablet (not a smartphone, but a tablet) would have been a godsend in college: put all my textbooks on it, photocopy pages from books, write reports, take notes just by writing on the screentop. That would have been tremendous. But that's not what we've got, is it. We've got facebook and Twitter on everything. Everyone's all connected and no one can write a goddamned sentence worth reading.

Nearly none of today's young people are idiot savants. Their fascination with information, a.k.a. the world, to me resembles the sponge-like fascination and absorption of babies. Most of us don't condemn babies for being so ignorant, but instead funnel our best and most resources to their hungry and adaptive minds. Most of them turn out to be like us, the bright, knowledgeable and articulate who post on Blowback. 8-)

In a previous post here I suggested that this searching mob may be the raw material for the key to a new paradigm of education. I repeat that proposition here, pointing out the foreshadowing of existing online programs from kindergarten to graduate school. It behooves one and all to develop ways to manage to funnel the flood of information to the young people we care about, just as we did for the babies.

When I went to college in 1980s, I would have killed to get hold of an iPhone or other smart phone. I had a watch which contained all my data (names, addresses, phone #s, appointments, etc.), but it only held 500 items. I have learned more in the five years I've had an iPhone than I have in all my college years, and been able to apply it. Life is much simpler now that I have access to so much information. Wikipedia is a good starting place but you need to even check that -- don't go with the text as much as the articles and links provided.

All these complaints about kids nowadays and their computers: imagine back to the time before Commodore 64s, and 128s, Radio Shack, Apple, IBM, and DOS -- was that more productive or less productive for you? Half my time was spent looking things up in books -- which have essentially created and printed by computers since the 1950s. Stop your complaining, folks. You've found the enemy and you is it.

Young people using computers remind me of savants. Here's a guy who knows Shakespeare backward and forward. Literally. Recite four words and he can tell you the character the act, the scene, all of it, in a second. Has a functional IQ of 80. Here's the guy who can play any piece of Mozart. Can't compose anything himself. Here's the savant who can draw an absolutely flawless copy of any picture you show him. Hand him the materials and ask him to do something for his own enjoyment and he just stares. In other words, a search function, a CD player, and a scanner. Big deal. And I think about them when I see the young playing on their computers. Most of these people aren't writing code. Most are simply playing: a tweet here a Facebook post here. They aren't learning or thinking or reflecting, they're simply consuming.

Today's Classic strip is unintentionally prescient, with Zonker's dad telling Mike that he hopes he'll never have to experience separation from his wife.

Got a kick out of Sunday's strip. Generation communications check. Middle=age Boomer fashion statement is right on -- Zonker's hat and lol that plaid!

According to Evangelical pollster Barna Group, 38% of Christian Millennials say that they fact-check sermons on their smart phones. There is hope for youth yet. Now if somebody would fund One Laptop Per Child to get computers into the hands of the rest of the billion children in the world... 

Wow!! Yesterday's strip really captures the intellectual laziness of a generation that knows so little, but can diddle themselves silly on their stupid toys looking for factoids. Sadly, this is common not just in high school, but at colleges and universities, where it is quite the struggle to get incoming freshmen and sophomores interested in the world around them. As some students mature, they do learn that there is more to the world than what's on their stupid toys. One only wishes that more would dis-engage and confront the real world, not the imaginary digital one.

It is indeed remarkable that a young person can be impervious to knowledge offered in a conventional classroom setting and yet hold the world literally in his/her hands to access at will. Is it deplorable or a new paradigm demanding to be included, or even a key to a better educated world class? As a retired "old fogey" I've learned a brainful of stuff that gives me perspective on everything else I knew. But, unguided curiosity can give rise to a dilettante populace, knowing facts, but not understanding. I trust teachers will embrace that emerging need to guide an expanding ability to satisfy curiosity.

As a high school teacher, I must say that today's portrayal of Zipper is a spot-on depiction of today's students. They know so little but can Google the knowledge of the world in seconds. The only thing that would have made the strip more powerful would have been if Zipper had cut-and-pasted his response from a vandalized Wikipedia article.

Naturally I miss my daily Doonesbury, but it's a joy re-reading some of my favourite* moments from the past -- like Honey telling the audience to "go wild." I'm looking forward to the ball bearings...

* Please excuse my British spelling.

How long, O great cartoonist, will you remain "on vacation," as you seem to have been since the Ides of March?

"Those Chinese are an especially tricky people!" I've been waiting for this one to show up. Back in college that was a line assured to get a laugh.

My cat died and I didn't cry. Sunday's strip made me tear up. How do you do it, GT?! Live forever.

I'm personally enjoying the combination of vintage Doonesbury on weekdays and new material for the Sunday strip. Keep both of 'em coming.

In today's strip, do I notice bags under Boopsie's eyes??? Hopefully it's a case of a bad lighting glitch in the Doonesbury studios. I dread having age catch up with Ms. B.... You should always soften the spotlights.

Is it my imagination, or do Boopsie's eyes get wider every year?

Thank the stars for Sundays. I really needed to be able to look forward to something like a new Doonesbury to get me through this week. Seeing Boopsie was a bonus, as always.

Actually, you can get Fox News in the UK on Sky Channel 509. The good news is that no one in Britain seems to take it seriously. The Daily Mail, on the other hand...

Fox: To quote Mel, "It's like getting the news from the town drunk."