I know where you're headed with this, skyofblue.  It's not that kids lack the ability to "do effective Google searches"--certainly, by Middle School--but most, I think, lack the interest.  So, they lack a lot of "the critical thinking, context or history background" poster tempsperdue mentioned. But they feel free (and it's a "free country") to share their (misguided, ill-informed) opinions. I don't single out kids on this. Older--but no wiser--people do the same. You see their ignorance every day on these comment pages. 

You could understand it during an earlier era, when you had to visit the library to "look it up" in an encyclopedia. What a pain. Today, any room with a computer is a library. It takes mere minutes to learn what used to take hours...even DAYS. Easier than ever.  

But, gee, gotta do Facebook and Twitter...