Does exposure makes anyone smarter...?

Quite often,  I feel the new generation of kids ( including mine ) are much smarter...then I console myself that their exposure to different situations/ technology are more... that makes them smarter or is the genes ....that decide you are what you are. To what extent... external factors contribute to 'smartness' of a person?

Does it mean the situations should take credit or debit on making the person what he/she is? There are many questions unanswered…if we start adding to a long list of reasons…latest research shows that even the behavior and thinking capability of a person is decided by the genes he or she is born with. So, such a theory does not ensure same 'smartness'  to all exposed to similar situation.

And then, astrologers say that ‘stars’ governing a person decide on a person’s future and the individual is just a victim to vagaries of his destiny etc. But the ‘practical’ and scientism guided individuals say it is cause and effect theory which controls the happening of events in one’s life. But then, every effect is not necessarily preceded by a ‘deciding’ cause!

In the movie “Changing Places”  that stars Eddie Murphy..a comedy as well a parody movie ... resolutely says exposure decides what a person can become.