For the world as a whole? Definite differences.

It just seems like a super jaded "kids these days" thing to hate on them for consuming easily accessed, free content- and acting like the global literacy and intellectual capital would remain unaffected.

I've never encountered a kid (other than my own) who has read:

https://mathcs.clarku.edu/~djoyce/java/elements/elements.htm...

but have encountered many others who struggle with geometry.

Tell me these differences.

Shitty internet videos exist and are what kids want all over the world. At some point you are going to have to face it that reading lost the battle for people’s eyes to video. I was an avid reader for most of my childhood and young adult life but now in my 40s I have accepted that I’d just rather watch from the deluge of visual media available vs reading.

Piracy also exists for books so copyright doesn’t seem to be that big a deal. In fact if I look at the top pirated books currently I’m going to run across more junk books like “Make Money Faster” and “Give her orgasms in under 30 seconds” than anything you might find intellectually stimulating.