Most of the handwringing about tech is the middle-aged projecting their anxieties on their children. It's not necessarily the kids who are threatened by social media. It's them, whole fucking 40 year olds, scrolling on tiktok (wtf!) and feeling queasy about it. Kids these days yeah right.

Listen to this kid subtly rubbing it in:

> “I still long to have no phone at all,” she said. “My parents are so addicted. My mom got on Twitter, and I’ve seen it tear her apart. But I guess I also like it, because I get to feel a little superior to them.”

Anyway, that aside. The article is complete cringe though. NYT really is 95% lifestyle branding and 5% factoids. Also, these kids, I don't know if they realize, but it's always just that little skeevy (not necessarily in a sexual nature, more generically, as-in, unseemly, too familiar, think "cool teacher"), when adults - journalists, artists, ...- worm their way in kids culture, package their growing up for the entertainment of jaded, passe 50 year olds.

I have a good friend like this, he works remotely now after graduating and moving and he’s pretty lonely.

Won’t be true of everyone of course.

Are you suggesting a link between his lack of phone and his loneliness, or his moving and his loneliness?

I know our generation (you can guess) is painted with the "too obsessed with social" habit.. and I'd say the preponderance of people staring at their phones during all moments of life (driving, shopping, dining with their partners) makes them no less lonely. You can pretend you're not lonely as long as you have a graph to pulldown-reload.

I have a phone, no one has called it in years, I wouldn't say I'm lonely.

Even if they're orthogonal, there's something seemingly off with people staring at their phones all the time, during every moment in life. My last gf would pick up her phone the minute I paused a show to pop into the kitchen or go to the restroom. That didn't bother me.. what bothered me is when she didn't notice my return and put the phone down so we could return to our show or movie. I'd have to do the "I'm back" cough or shoulder tap. It became increasingly objectionable.