This amused me: Some Quotes Of Note: Politicians Damning New Technologies/Cultural Artifacts | Techdirt.
It seems that for any new practice X the conversation follows this path:
“Those kids and their X will destroy society.”
20 years pass: “Why can’t kids today do X instead of Y. Those kids and their Y will destroy society.”
Parents always think kids are wasting their youth, and always have done [so] down through the millennia. ‘That Ug, always holding things. His front paws will develop in funny ways. Why can’t he walk on all fours like normal proto-hominids?’ And so, whatever the kids spend the most time doing, that’s always what parents think is a waste of time, and what is corrupting their lives. It doesn’t matter what that is. If all they did was homework, parents would be worrying that their kids aren’t becoming well-rounded people. And, in fact, parents do this – enrolling math nerds in karate classes and the like. There is no way to win – parental paranoia ensures that kids are always doing the wrong thing.
– Tom Forsyth of RAD Game Tools, http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_142/3052-The-Myth-of-the-Media-Myth.5