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Comment by bradlys | Hacker News Reader

People are staring at their smartphones because there are less communal spaces than before and less energy put towards having them.

Read some Robert Putnam. This was happening well before screens could be blamed.

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Yet I see people staring at their smartphones even in settings that would be perfect for some real social interaction. These things are just way too addicting for our primitive brains.

And people read newspapers back in the day too...

Maybe, but iPods and Walkmen predate smartphones by a few decades. I recall posts from a decade or so ago from men bemoaning headphones as a blocker from interacting with strangers.

If it wasn’t phones, it’d be newspapers. People will find devices to keep to themselves in public.

Newspapers, iPods, blackberries, the modern smartphone. The effect on the mind gets progressively worse from these things. I'll often go out somewhere without my phone, but I'll bring a book or newspaper and I easily get more distracted by what's happening around me and can't focus on reading. A smartphone? The apocalypse could be happening and my mind unchecked wouldn't pull its attention away the screen.

I've seen couples sitting together on a data at a restaurant, each glued to their own phones, not even saying a word to each other. I know I'm being judgmental here, but that's ridiculous and these people actually need help. The world has a mental health crisis going on, and smartphone addiction is only a tiny tip of the iceberg.

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