"Today's teeenagers are more sophisticated than any previous generation...
But a lot of this knowledge is acquired in a social vacuum.
Because the source is often the computer screen...
the skills that are learned through human interaction remain stunted..
If maturity involves the painful acquisition of knowledge through experience,
it is put off by the ubiquity of the virtual world...
I was talking to ayoung woan in her late-20s who was describing to me the phenomenon man-boy.
These are male inhabitants of NY, agedabout 25-40,
whom she described as so emotionally stunted that receiving a call from one
-rather than a text or e-mail- had become shocking.
They've put off responsibility outside work
-including relationships and marriage-
as an intolerable burden on man-boyhood", NYT, 11.05.09