What have we done?

We all start off knowing nothing (speaking of the times I was born into), then we start to pick up things from our immediate environment. We were taught to be conservative, be content with what you have; by no means, aspire, but in your aspiring, be cautious! Thinking about it now, I guess the idea was to promote steady pace, hard work and to get us to relish success when it happens. Perhaps, it was also a way to preach: head work + patience= success. But all that has changed, and I wonder if it is for the good or bad.
The folks who grew up in my times (most of us to whom this applied to of course ), followed this rule. A good number of us fall under the emerging [disappearing] class today. So what we did, was up the ante up a notch.
We now have kids, who obviously are smarter than we are ( they say its the computer age, but I know we mostly did not select our children from the computer). A good number of people say its the proliferation of content that our children have been exposed to, even while in the womb, and the workings of the brain, that have made them this smart; that the brain is a sponge. So I ask, is there every a time in one's life when the spongy characteristics of the brain ceases? Are we really the ones imbibing or better still, feeding our children with this content that have made them smarter than we are? Are our children really smarter than we are or have we just gone dumb?
My folks, till this day, would never admit that I or any of my siblings are smarter than they are; and I know they serve better advice than I do now. So where, when and how did things change?
We were said to be rash, unsteady[mostly], and that we were prone to lots of errors. So how did our younger ones escape this "disease" we have?
Indeed we are analytical, but mostly not deep; quick, yet not able to manage speed; blessed with better opportunities, yet careless; informed, yet stupid. And we agree that our children, who we breed, are better than we are.
We hustle to make life better for the ones after us, that they may be better educated (by our kinds), believe they are, but we have no education ourselves.
This makes no sense to me.
What have we done?