Cell phone addiction seems to be a real - and growing - problem. So many kids and young adults today don't appear to have any interpersonal skills at all. Orwell and Levin both warned of having this become reality. And here we are.

Have you read Last Child in the Woods? It's inspiring and sad all at the same time. It talks about our disconnect with nature.

Technology is great, it is awesome. But I agree, some people ttoally over do it, especially teenagers who are on it all night and then are unable to get up to go to school the next day.

I was born in 1967 and I can't remember a time until I got into my 40's that I ever looked up to hear the sound of songbirds or bear witness to the beauty of this planet. When I was a kid, long before computers and social media it was about playing marbles, racing bikes with baseball cards in the spokes, trying to win over the cutest girl in the class and building our version of a log cabin. And so kids having a narrow vision or being pre-occupied with themselves or their circle of friends is not a new thing. Having said that, the one thing that does concern me is the lack of imagination. I can remember writing letters to the girl I had a crush on, my grandmother, my parents (I was in foster care) and friends I had moved away from and in return I didn't receive pictures or videos - I received letters - well-written letters - in cursive mind you - where I had to use my imagination to interpret and understand the message they were trying to convey to me. I think that, above all else, has been lost and I'm not sure if we'll ever recover from it.

I'm sure they see what's around them just fine. Let's not be quasi-Luddites, here.

Actually, at the college in Virginia where I teach, one girl absorbed in her phone was hit by a truck and died hours later, with just enough to contact her parents. I believe she was on life support only to keep her alive long enough for her pparents to get to the hospital. Kids sadly don't seem aware of the real world Have you read W.T. Anderson's "Feed"? Imagine if, instead of cell phones, kids were plugged directly into the Net (here called the "Feed." ) The kids experience nothing but constant ads, parties, and chat---wired consumers. But one kid meets a girl who had her feed installed after she was an infant, and it's failing and affecting her motor abilities.

Every generation has whatever the latest technology is.
Mine had vinyl, pot, and concerts. Back when bands were actually good.
We were also the first ones to have cable tv, video games, and computers.

See this video

If you are just noticing this now, you are way behind things in the US... A plus for you in this case.