YEREVAN. – Armenia’s second President Robert Kocharyan was hosted by a group of youth.

In his opening remarks, he noted that during his presidency he regularly had met with the youth. "Scholars say that the youth has changed, the world has changed. New technologies are forming the new youth," the former president said, in particular.

Drawing parallels with his childhood, Kocharyan noted that in his time the main focus at schools was on remembering information. "[But] there are smartphones today, and [therefore] it is meaningless to keep [all] that information in mind. Your generation knows where to look for information, and it finds it in seconds; this changes the mindset in an interesting way. The ability to register hundreds of friends on Facebook has led to the fact that the perception of 'friendship' changed among the younger generation. (…). Today, social media enable to interact with hundreds of people, and the virtual world has mixed with the reality, and the word 'friendship' is transforming," said Kocharyan.