[cderwin]

I'm more or less in the same age bracket as you (graduated high school in 2015) and your spot on about the utility of computers for research and the importance of learning how to effectively use a search engine (this is a skill most of my peers lack).

That said, there's a huge difference between getting your first computer at 12 and getting your first computer at 3 (or at least largely unmonitored access to one). It remains to be seen how interaction with technology at such a young age affects social development and maturity, whereas technology's impact on our lives occurred after that development had mostly finished.