Then we talk about success in using gadgets, we should remember that this skill is very extern. They don't understand the technologies itself. They push the buttons fluently, but don't now about things behind the interface. And traditional books and homeworks will not help whem to get such kind of knowledge. That is most important issue for me. The children drift apart from traditional education process, but they still don't go deep into technologies as a new field of knowledge and education.   

All kind of conspiracy theories are quite popular between wide groups of people. Modern anthropologists and folklorists supose that conspiracy theories are the combination of quasi-religious and rational attempts to describe the reality. Conspirological world outlook is unfalsifiable. Absence of any evidences is not a reason to doubt in a theory, because the Government (aliens, illuminati, etc) are so powerful that can hide the truth forever.
Anyway, conspiracy theories can be very thrilling (especially if you invent your own). They can influence to the politics and public opinion. That's why such ideas are important as a social factor, but not as a physical fact.