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>My 6 y/o nephew will totally tune out the world if you let him play Angry Birds, ignoring his parents until someone physically removes the screen from his hands. That's harmful.

> I hosted a field trip for pre-teen middle schoolers and in our downtime between activities there was zero social interaction because they all buried their heads in their phones (okay, I did observe one student ask another for a charger). That's harmful.

I did the exact same thing with books and nobody said it was harmful. To the contrary, I was mostly praised. I'm not saying it wasn't harmful, it clearly was in some respects. But the benefits outweighed the costs and everybody could see that. Why can't we do the same with phones?

Books have many clear benefits, like generally increasing reading and writing ability and in particular, expanding vocabulary.

What are the benefits of extended phone use?

I'm not saying there are none but I'm hard pressed to think of a way staring into a phone benefits me. 90% of the time I and the people around me seem to be consuming drivel on social media (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit) which usually has none of the benefits of books and especially for young people, seems to have very serious downsides, like depression and a feeling of social isolation.

> Now we can't take her anywhere without slowing us down. It's become harmful.

That sounds like a mild inconvenience, but certainly not harmful. Staying active (even if that means just walking around, especially at the age of 80) is important.

See my reply to dagenix in this thread. You have discovered the point.

Your point is not my point. Your point is that social media isn't as harmful as people make it out to be. My point is that older people need regular physical activity.

> Screen time is hurting everyone and singling out kids is just old people refusing to accept that screens changed humanity at all ages

Better close your browser window real quick! Don't want any more of that nasty screen time to harm you!

I could have easily included myself in my above list of anecdotes. But more importantly, look at all the "harmful" things I listed. My mom interacts with her friends. An old lady slows down a group of people. A kid gets in trouble with his parents. Middle schoolers are socially inept.

None of those things are really that harmful, they are mostly expected and regular parts of life.

Have you read about Poe's Law: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law?