There are two popular – but opposing – ideas about the internet and young people: Internet makes them more stupid versus Internet empowers them and we should look at the kids to now our future.

Kathryn Mills made a review of the existing evidence and concludes:

• Adults are concerned about the effects of new technologies on the developing brain.

• Different aspects of Internet use have different effects on adolescent health.

• Neuroimaging research on this topic has focused on nonrepresentative samples.

• There is currently no evidence that typical Internet use harms the adolescent brain.

And there are also some interesting facts in her article in Cell:

Although it is unclear how time spent specifically using the Internet relates to physical activity, a longitudinal study of 11–13-year-olds (n = 908) suggests that engaging in screen-based sedentary behaviors such as computer use is not associated with less engagement in leisure-time physical activities

Or:

At this time we cannot be sure whether Internet use is creating a generation with ‘fundamentally different cognitive skills’, although recent studies have begun to test the potential effects of widespread Internet use on the cognitive abilities of young adults.

And:

Although there are neuroimaging studies that have investigated the effects of Internet use on the adolescent brain, these studies have focused on adolescents classified as excessive Internet users (see [11] for a review). The results of these studies are unlikely to apply to the majority (an estimated 95.6%; see [12]) of adolescents that do not qualify as excessive Internet users.