Is the internet helping or hurting the way students learn?

         Today mostly every middle and high schooler have a cell phone with the internet. They have a device in their pockets at every second, so why would they want to sit there for forty minutes and learn about what happens next in a novel or find out the meaning of a poem when they can look it up in a second? Why are we making them read out of an outdated textbook? And why are we teaching them to write if they can just use spell check and grammar check on Microsoft word?
           We have to think of a different way to approach teaching or else our students are going to keep relying on a machine instead of their brain to do the work. When I was in elementary and middle school no one had a cell phone and ten year old kids didn't have myspace, facebook, blogs, or twitter. These just didn't exist yet so it was understandable that we were taught in that way.
           Now it is eminent for teachers to incorporate things such as blogs, youtube (talk shows on prevalent issues that relate to a book/topic being taught), activities for classwork on the internet, and other forms of technology. When it comes to students learning we are not doing a good job relating their lives to this fast past changing world.