Keeping up...is it worth it?

Just saw a tweet from my daughter's middle school teacher looking for a Twitter lesson plan. Does that mean it's here to stay? I spoke on copywriting to these kids last year and not one of them had heard of a Kindle. Told them they were pry among the last kids to go through school lugging individual text books. Though it felt good to know I knew something cool the kids didn't, I wondered why they didn't. Teens may be online all the time, but they're not playing in the same parts of the web sandbox the grown-ups are. My youngest learned I had a Twitter account and told me "Twitter is stupid, only adults care about it." Hmmm...

As I scan my inbox full of invites to webinars on the latest information sharing trends I have to wonder are they worth my time? Tell me, are you paying attention to all the latest "stuff" simply because someone (or lots of someones) are telling you to?