Kids' brains have more “plasticity” -- many more neural connectors, or "synapses" -- than adults' brains.

Here’s how it works:

When a child is born, he comes equipped with a brain that has already been hardwired by genetics, innate chemicals and his experience inside the womb. He then spends the next two years "growing his brain."

His neurons sprout dendrites and start sending and receiving signals with other parts of the brain at an alarming rate. By the time he’s 2-years-old, the number of neural connectors inside his brain essentially maxes out. He then spends the next decade pruning them down, depending on what he uses, how he uses and them, and what he doesn’t use at all.

The process of “learning” in a young brain therefore doesn’t mean forming new neural pathways so much as it means figuring out what neural pathways are not needed, and then getting rid of them to make the brain more efficient.

By the time we’re teenagers, we’ve whittled down our synapses to about 60 percent of what we had when we were toddlers.

“As young, malleable brains develop shortcuts to access information, these shortcuts represent new neural pathways being laid down,” Small writes.

So while adult brains can adapt to become efficient users of digital technology, kids brains are designed to use it.