Interesting thing is, most teens don't even use google as a search engine in the way we are used to doing it. Google Now, Siri, Apps for relevant content, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vine, Snapchat are the ways they get info. A huge number lacks in basic CS/IT skills, even tho people claim "the damn kids are computer wizards". Irony is that my 55yr old father is better at using the internet than my 16yr old cousin who grew up using it.
I wonder if the notion that computer wizards are kids isn't an artifact of the 80s and 90s. Back when computers were first reaching a wide audience, you often needed to do some work to manage to install games and have them run smoothly. The machines themselves were less reliable, but more simple than machines today. I don't mean the UI, which was not as welcoming as today's touchscreens, but the internal logic and organization wasn't as complex. So you had kids making the effort to learn these things their parents didn't really get.
Even if it was never the case that most kids were computer wizards, to many people, most computer wizards were kids. The way our minds work, that's just about the same thing.
No, the myth of the young computer wizard is alive and well, and a lot of kids believe the legends themselves.
I actually disagree with the notion that games are what separated the "wizards" from the mooks, and instead just the basics of what made computers interesting (Web Browser, Chat Room, simple applications) are what made the wizards of the 80's and 90's. Parents at the time were already familiar with games by and large via consoles - most of them probably had some version of Atari at least or knew someone who did, and the parents probably thought that all gaming was the same; just stick in the cartridge. I know that personally I had a heck of a time explaining why we needed computer upgrades for various games, or why DSL was essential for my Diablo and Warcraft experiences.
Often it's the simplest of tasks and knowledge, such as knowing how to quickly get accurate search results that aren't from Google/Amazon/Facebook or comfort with whatever office suite that elevates someone to the status of Wizard. A lot of folks have a surprisingly small comfort zone when it comes to computers and online, and being able to operate far outside of that tiny comfort zone is what gives them the impression of wizardry.
I can't think of any teenager friend who uses Facebook, Instagram, Vine, or Snapchat as a substitute for google search. What type of info are you referring to? I'm not sure I understand how you can even use most of those for getting info that one would normally google search for.
My sister is a teacher and tells me the same. The kids are actually pretty clueless these days, when me and my peers were teenagers, we were much more tech-savvy than the teens today.
I think they've gone beyond tech-savvy to tech-trusting; so comfortable with the notion that the Internet is the source of wisdom that they don't apply their critical thinking to that domain.
At work it was common to see even university graduates pasting-in code from the first search result.
