Back in the old days, Mr Lee recalled, he did his homework in a quiet place, focusing his attention on one thing at a time. But when his children did theirs, they have the music on, chat with friends online and surf several websites at once. 'Now, children are multi-tasking, at least they tell me they are,' he said, with a wry smile.
Acknowledging that there is a gap between his generation and his children's, he said: 'It's a different way of thinking, a different approach to life.'
Indeed, for the average 15-year-old today, downloading music, playing computer games for hours and chatting with friends online is perfectly normal. Teenagers do their homework, listen to music and play online games while writing their blogs - simultaneously and effortlessly.
Welcome to the world of the digital native - one that many parents cannot fully comprehend. It came about as a result of how digital technology has socialised children from young, according to a number of digital evangelists.
One such person, Mr Marc Prensky, chief executive officer of educational software maker Games2train, has said that digital technology has split people into two different types.
One group are the 'natives' of the digital world, who are completely at ease with the new wave of technology, having been brought up on a staple of MTV, mobile phones and the Internet.
Digital 'immigrants', on the other hand, still have one foot in the analog world, and are not completely comfortable with digital culture - even if they use it for work.
The digital divide goes beyond simply how differently each generation uses technology. Growing up constantly exposed to digital technology has affected and changed the way natives think, Mr Prensky has argued.
A 2005 survey by the non-profit research organisation Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) found that American teens spent an average of six-and-a-half hours a day on the Internet. An earlier study by the KFF showed that children also start using the computer at a relatively young age - as young as four.
In fact, more than a third of four- to six-year-olds use the computer several times a week. About four in 10 in this age group can turn on the computer by themselves, and 40 per cent can load a CD-ROM.
A separate study in 2005 by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, which is intended to monitor the impact of the Internet on American society, showed that nine in 10 teens aged between 12 and 17 have access to the Internet.
What are they doing online? Some eight in 10 play games, while seven in 10 look for information and news. Add to that a host of other activities that teens do online - like socialising on networking sites like MySpace and Friendster, blogging, creating and uploading videos, downloading music - and they can almost seem to older folk like they come from a different planet altogether.
With so much time spent online, the digital native develops certain traits and abilities - like being able to multi-task and sift through information quickly. They also become quickly bored if there is little interactivity, according to Mr Prensky.
A survey in July, conducted by Bloomberg and the Los Angeles Times, of teens and young adults bears out his theories. Three in five of young people aged 12 to 24 said they prefer to multi-task rather than focus on one thing at a time. Half of those polled said multi-tasking relieves boredom.
The digital natives are making their habits felt not just to their parents or teachers, but also in the commercial world.
The newspaper industry is facing its toughest crisis yet with digital natives heading online for news. Many newspapers are scrambling to adapt and to tap the Internet to keep readers, especially younger ones, hooked.
Big advertising companies are warning of the demise of traditional advertising. They say consumers are no longer influenced by traditional ad messages like 30-second television commercials. So to overcome the short attention spans of the digital native, a brand must be distilled in as few words as possible.
The digital native's 'brain is physically different. It has rewired itself. It responds faster. It sifts out. It recalls less', said Mr Maurice Saatchi, executive director of M&C Saatchi, in an online question-and-answer session with readers of the Financial Times website.
His solution: a single word brand, which his advertising firm terms 'one-word equity', to capture the imagination of the digital native.
In education, it may mean that children need to be taught differently.
Schools in Singapore are already being fully equipped with computers, while students in higher education are doing their work and 'attending' lectures online.
The videos shown during the National Day Rally, created by students from St Joseph's Convent, show how creative juices can be exploited with the use of technology. Singaporeans were impressed by what they saw, especially the older generation.
One senior citizen told me he would never have been able to imagine those videos. 'These kids nowadays, they can do so much that I don't think I can,' he said.
His comments raise an interesting question: Can the digital divide be bridged or is it something that will remain between generations? And what are the implications if it cannot?
Being 26, and with one foot in the digital age and the other in the analog period, perhaps I can offer some insight. For people my age, the Internet did not arrive until we were in our mid-teens. Yet we quickly adopted it.
I cannot function without my mobile phone and broadband. I've even forged several relationships, including romantic ones, over the Internet.
But even I feel the gap between myself and someone in his or her teens today. For one thing, I don't completely understand the Internet lingo that teenagers use. The language defies all rules of the English language, from spelling to grammar - even though it looks like English.
A typical example: YestErdDay I wuz at e shoPPin center n me saw e sing idols! paul 2hill rOxOrs and stuffs! luv hiM lolz. (Rough translation: I was at the shopping centre yesterday when I saw the Singapore Idol contestants! Paul Twohill is great and all! I love him haha.)
The divide is real and if something is not done about it, we could have a situation where one generation finds it tough to talk to the other.
Prime Minister Lee recognised this when he urged Government agencies to get online and to reach out to the digital natives by using art, wit and humour in podcasts and vodcasts.
Beyond the mere act of 'immigrating' to the digital world, there is also the need to package what one says to this generation of netizens.
What this means is that traditional sources of authority can no longer tell people what to do. They have to put up strong, compelling arguments with a touch of humour and fun. And they have to live with some of the more unpleasant noises online.
For example, the position that politics is a serious business and therefore politicians cannot be made fun of, will unfortunately not hold much water with many digital denizens.
Happily, if history is anything to go by, human beings adapt extraordinarily fast, so gaps between people are quickly closed.
To assume there is no chance for a digital immigrant to fully convert into a native is overstating the problem. After all, many real-life immigrants here end up speaking Singlish, eating durian and living in HDB flats.
In fact, judging by the people I speak with, many digital immigrants are adapting nicely. One of them, a 70-year-old friend, says he gets up at six every morning to check an online current affairs forum he moderates called Globalogue. He also gets his dose of international news online and sends e-mail to his daughter in the United States everyday.
So, perhaps the digital divide is just a symptom of a world in transition with many digital immigrants still reluctant to move to the new world.
For now, I still prefer reading my favourite books without the distraction of computer games or music. But increasingly, I am resorting to e-books on my computer, which saves space on my bookshelf.
Now, that's the best of both worlds. This digital immigrant is fast going native.