Well, some people may be what you have described... Yes, I can't deny that it creates newbies with shoot, shoot, and shoot, think about it later mentality. Some digital cameras have been marketed as tools that allows you to just snap, snap and snap and don't bother about the cost, a tool that allows you to capture memories and moments more conveniently and economical compared to film. So we can't blame the amount of users that "shoot without thinking", because this is the reason they buy the camera, the way they want to use the camera and spend their money.
But let's look at the digital medium. What I feel is that it actually does what it claims, open photography to the masses. It introduce functions and controls that was available only on more sophisticated SLR cameras to the masses. So, it all depends on what the user wants. So if you want to just shoot, so be it, set the camera to the programmed/auto mode and shoot. If this is the extent they want to ultilize the equipment and the type of 'photography' they want to engage in, they way they want to spend their money, we cannot stop them, we cannot complain. But there are people who wants to learn, like Revenant in our forum who shows an effort in learning, people who we should help and introduce them to the art of "seeing with one eye". And don't forget some people with digital camera 'promotes' themselves, from a leisure snapper, to a hobbyist. This may be due to the fact that they shoot at everything as it cost nothing, unlike film. They shoot sceneries, abstracts, portraits, macros, streets...They compare their own picture with those by others and wonder how did the photographer do that? and they learn, they ask their friends, read books, come to forums like this and in the end, they may end up deep in the entanglements of photography. And this is because they actually start shooting, they have a try at photography, and a taste to see if its the right cake for them, if not, they can continue snapping, as they like it.
So I guess the digital medium has its merits. But I also cannot deny that film promotes better learning in certain points such as composition. But I believe the digital medium promotes learning in other technicalities such as exposure...
