Intellectual growth is reduced by the retrieval of information. In the past, when I was going to school, I had to push myself to figure out things and it forced my brain to learn and remember things vividly. Intellectual growth has reduced with all the technology we have today. The technology is good, but information can be obscure and often not valid or correct.
No, I believe today's young people experience greater intellectual growth due to the easy retrieval of information. Before it became easy to find information on the Internet, students had to spend hours going through encyclopedias, atlases, and a ton of other books in a library. It was time consuming and extremely frustrating. A lot of students just gave up on their search. When a young person today has a question, they can find the answer in minutes.
Whole textbooks on any subject can be easily retrieved from the Internet. Sure, some young people are more busy watching funny cat videos and looking at tinted pictures of their friends, but to those who desire intellectual growth, the Internet is the most powerful tool ever unleashed by humanity. Even "shallow" sources of information like Wikipedia and online news can open the doors to true intellectual growth through footnotes, sources, and the power of curiousity. The Internet is an open door to a golden age of intellectual growth.
No, I do not believe that intellectual growth in young people is being reduced by the easy retrieval of information, because the fact that information is readily available to us makes us more able to spend time thinking critically. With the extra time, we have to learn how to use the information positively.
No, I think that the opposite is happening. I think that we are able to see so much info online, that we know a whole lot more, and can process a whole lot more info than people say a hundred years ago could. I think that we are smarter now.