It sounds like her son has ADHD (and her too likely as it’s mostly genetic), just like me and millions of others. No, it’s not an epidemic. Social media and phones in general are the perfect “solution” for brains that are in a constant craving for stimulation.

I don’t want to get into the whole personal responsibility vs evil companies dichotomy, but something that has helped me tremendously is wasting time on my own terms, not because I got a notification. There are days when I don’t receive a single email because I’ve aggressively unsubscribed from almost everything. Same for the notifications on the phone - if, say, Uber sends me a notification for a coupon for 50% off at Chick-fil-a, that’s an immediate banishment and the app can no longer send any. If that degrades the app experience when I do need a car, that’s their problem for abusing my trust.