I agree..... it seems very easy for some to live more online than their real lives.

This is why the upcoming generations are going to be so reliant on AI. They're being trained to know nothing else.

Common sense is rare these days, in the future it's going to be non-existent.

Me too, @legomom23, she says as she types on her laptop.

I think any tool can be used to the detriment of its intended outcome. People have to take the responsibility to maintain balance between online and real life. Personally, I love messing with the algorithm to see how it slants what it thinks I want to see based on my scrolling behavior.

And yet we cannot seem to get a consensus to limit/protect children where their use is concerned. Shameful.

The movements to ban cell phones from "bell to bell" ( the school day) are getting lots of traction and it seems equal resistance. My daughter is on the school board in a very well regarded district and there is definitely no agreement there. Not just that about the phones, but the chromebooks or whatever the school supplies to students have minimal safeguards and it is unclear how much tracking is going on and by whom.

I find when I read books, I am hyper aware of how much cell phones and or even interent play into the plot. It really is a big shift in our reality.

We've all seen teens in the same place ( maybe a train, bus ,m restaurant) sitting together but each one separately on his own phone with zero interaction.

@salonva I'd bet anything they are interacting with the kids next to them via their phones.

The Silicon valley folks who make these things and know exactly what their effects are do not allow their own children to be exposed to screens until they are in their mid teens.

I think that's all you need to know.

I'm grateful that my kids had most of their schooling before the screen explosion and that my grandson will likely attend school during the post screen reset.

I attended the Masters golf tournament this past weekend and phones are banned on the grounds. It was so refreshing to watch people interact with each other instead of staring at the thing in their hands.

I think the focus here is not necessarily children/teens/etc -- look around

There's a woman who walks around our neighborhood early in the morning. It's good that she's getting exercise but at the same time she is holding her phone in front of her while having a conversation. I'm assuming she's face timing but I worry that she'll trip over an uneven sidewalk. And what's even better is the volume is turned up loud enough that I can hear sides of the conversation.