My boys have lots of age-appropriate tech devices, can set the DVR by themselves, and know about the latest viral YouTube videos before I do. But sometimes I worry I am ruining them with technology. What are all these "convenience tools" doing to their "sponge-like" kid brains? Squelching their innate talents? Robbing them of the glory that comes from good old-fashioned benign neglect and boredom?

When I think back to my childhood, spent pretending my bike was a horse and making eraser people, I do think my kids are getting a little screwed. We had no technology (unless you count Lite Brite); we had to learn to make do. We were boredom survivors. Some of our best days revolved around playing House (the only one left standing in a nuclear war) and making great duct tape things, which we then sold to strangers from mom's card table. It was a wonderful time. Life's answers weren't a Google search away, and we, no doubt, came out brighter (briter?) because of it. Didn't we?

Let's take a quick look at childhood before and after the Internet was invented, and you decide. Who's screwed the least -- the techy kids of today or us non-techy kids of yesterday?

Image via kidperez/Flickr