Sometimes I think about how wild it must have been that there was a time when people simply didn’t have smartphones. Just people going out into the world not knowing anything except what they carry in their brain and what is immediately around them.
Now we simply look it up which means we don't have those conversations. I feel that on a whole it's made us less comfortable with situations where one person thinks A and another thinks B that's spilled from verifiable knowledge to scenarios where personal opinions differ. Probably something something culture wars.
It also meant that if you told someone you were meeting them at a certain place and time that not showing up was a huge waste of their time and a larger social no-no. Nowadays people cancel at the last moment because you can be sure your message will be received.
Ever seen a kid or young teenager interacting with a phone? It's not that they spend the day on Wikipedia searching for infinite knowledge, rather they mechanically swipe the next tiktok video or do the same on youtube. That thing is like a slug attached to your brain, draining all attention.
I had computers from an early age, but being connected all the time has had a negative impact on me personally. I've started really paying attention and doing the "Digital Declutter" that Cal Newport talks about in his book Digital Minimalism.
I have very very few notifications pop up on my phone now and I'm experimenting more with leaving it at home when I go somewhere. Trying to add a bigger disconnection between me and my phone.