Reality vs. Technology

I chose not to read Alone Together, but when I did actually take out my iPod head phones and started reading the last two books, Amuse Ourselves to Death and Who Owns the Future, I noticed that, when Postman said that he was not in anyway "attacking" people's intellectual capacity just because they watched a lot of television, in a way that implied to me, even though I don't watch TV, but I'm always on my iPod. I say all of this because when I was not on my iPod during this time I was actually having intellectual conversations with one of my friends, who I am constantly talking to, but have never really had a serious, life viewing conversation with. So why is it that many teenagers, knowing how smart they are, close themselves off to the world? I mean we are all worried about being judged by others or being better than someone else, so why don't we show the world what we are capable of?