Just because great grandpa was wrong about Judas Priest corrupting the youth doesn't mean that every new social innovation is unambiguously good. Smartphones need to be defended on their merits, not just dismissed because people thought new things were bad in the past and were wrong about it.
It very much is.
TVs and computers stayed stationary and at home. The internet was cool, but less important socially then as well. Now you have the confluence of mega-important social media and its interaction coupled with the ability to take it literally everywhere. So people are engaged with it all the time, everywhere. People can't even watch a standard-length movie without checking text messages and alerts 10 times.
And I see many of these young folks living their lives through social media instead of just...going and hanging out with friends. Social media can become "sufficient" interaction with friends and further effort to spend time or hang out seems to be less important.
But people are going to have to pick which critique they want to advance. Is the problem that smartphones make us too socially connected, or less? Because I just finished playing Pyre while streaming it to my boyfriend and chatting along and it was great, and we wouldn't have been able to do that just five years ago.
I'm constantly connected to a group of people, yeah. So previously completely alone time becomes pseudo-social - instead of reading a magazine alone you post interesting articles to facebook or post them in the group chat or send them to someone you know will really like it.
All of that seems likely to foster social ties, not alienate them.
The article is a little sloppy in distinguishing smartphone use and social media use - but what's pretty clear is that there's a correlation between social media use and depression. Some of that is the arrow of causality pointing the other way (people without friends to hang out with in person are on social media more often). But part of that is that, yeah, there are pathological ways to use the technology. On facebook you only ever see people at their best, they're not posting about the bad times or the setbacks or their fears and worries, and since you're an upjumped simian who instinctively vies for status, that makes you feel shitty and alone, so you have to remind yourself that you're only seeing people at their best. Social media can become a competition to see who gets the most likes, or whatever, and that doesn't seem likely to promote well-being. And cyberbullying is of course always an issue.
And, of course, it's rude to use your cell phone while actually with someone else, but my social circle has a pretty strong social norm against this. You've got to have a pretty good reason for it. I don't think I've ever seen the archetypical person on their phone not paying attention, except for a few customers.
But there are ways to use the technology to help people, and give them deeper and more meaningful social connections. We should be focusing on those instead of categorically decrying it.
