I also agree with this. While my high school years aren't THAT far behind, the technology you were allowed to use was limited at best. A fancy-smancy calculator that was banned in most post-secondary schools, and sometimes you could type stuff up to hand in. But almost everything had to be hand-written and you had to show your work.

Try giving some of these kids an exam from back in 1999 for my 9th grade achievement exam, and I bet you any money over half would fail. Tell a kid to hand-write a story that's minimum 3 pages long, then hand-write two more business letters, and an envelope, and see how they do. Yeah, not gonna happen.

They don't teach kids how to do things properly anymore, they teach them how to cheat and do it the easy way. Again, have them write something with ZERO technological aids, except a pencil, eraser, and pencil sharpener. Betcha most kids would look at that and wonder wtf is going on. And everything would be misspelled, too, because (a) kids can't read, (b) they can't spell, and (c) they rely on spellcheck to do (b) for them.

Technology is making kids stupid and lazy. And it sucks.

The thing is, on planes up here in Canada, they strongly discourage you to the point of threatening to take your device away during takeoff / landing. I mean, come on. Since when has an iPod or a Kindle done anything remotely CLOSE To threatening a plane ? Nothing, unless visual light from the last seat of the cabin can somehow screw up the thought patterns of the pilot at the very front of the fuselage. They're just jumping at ghosts and trying to pass the buck, as has been said. This way they don't have to pay. Gotta love them capitalists !