Well, I must admit, to keep up with what kids were talking about online (I was one of those mom's that spied on their sites)...I often had to refer to the urbandictionary.com.
As far as the college article, my kid's a junior in college and emailed his math prof last night because although he had done all his homework (it's due Monday) he couldn't quite make sense of one part of one problem and asked for some direction.
My kid laughed because the prof's reply expressed wonder that he had already done his homework for next Monday's class. I guess most kids must wait till the last minute, but it was hours of homework and waiting till the last minute could have been disastrous.
My son has always been amazed at the absentee rate and the amount of sleeping that goes on during a college class.
But the truth is, the system is in place that without a higher degree, you don't get far (unless you want to do a trade) and so you get the degree, and hopefully an advanced degree while you're young instead of waiting till you've got a wife and family to support and then realizing you need the education.