To think we're going to have a generation of adults unable to socialise?

[Ezlo]

By that I mean in restaurants. I see so many kids glued to their iPods in restaurants, barely uttering a word to the rest of their family. The future unsettles me.

I agree.

any actual evidence for "Loneliness now is at an all time high"?
who was surveyed? was it properly representative? what are they comparing it to? what counts as "all time"? how do we know how lonely people were during WWI or the Roman Republic?
Utter nonsense.

Perhaps the elderly woman who might have liked to chat to the person next to her who is busy on their phone might think technology has contributed to her loneliness, but her seatmates, an autistic teenage boy chatting to his first ever friend (who happens to live 5000 miles away) about their shared interest, or the mum for whom being able to send her emails while traveling, and thus leave the office half an hour earlier, or do the weekly shop from her phone, makes the difference between seeing her child before they go to bed every evening, or meeting up with a friend for a coffee, thinks it's hugely benefitted them - because it enables them to spend time socialising with people they know and like over chatting to strangers.

If a 16 year old says that. We are safe for now…

Perfectly said.

Lots of people have massively benefited from technology and screens.

I love your 16 year old! Gives me faith in the youngsters fighting back against the smartphone and its effects on society! (I would also come to his no smartphone rave, he is right, the 90s was amazing and never would have happened if we’d had smartphones!).

That has never happened in my lifetime, and I was born and brought up in the north, supposedly the friendlier part of England. Sounds like the romanticised situation in a smal rural village where everyone knows each other rather than the big city I lived in.

Speaking for myself, I have always been shy/introverted and keep myself to myself generally unless the situation dictates otherwise. When I am commuting, I use my phone to play games to pass the time (silently of course). What is the problem with that, I'm on my way to/from work and I have seen the view out of the window a hundred times or more, why shouldn't I idle away a usually unproductive hour? It is no more antisocial than reading a book or listening to music with earphones. I'm not glued to my phone the rest of the time, it is merely a tool to assist with certain things like communication and navigation, much of the time I don't have it on me when out and about. I have hobby and community groups which meet my need for human interaction.

In the past, we hadn't yet tried to emulate America and its car-is-king mentality so it was reasonable to let your kids outdoors to play in the local area. These days, motor vehicles have taken over our towns and cities and the freedom of children has been an externalised cost. What reaction would a parent get if they admitted they allow their kids to cycle on the road, yet that was normal 70-ish years ago?

I see so many adults and parents out and about looking at their screens, I'm not surprised that young children are doing the same. The children are merely copying the adults' behaviour.

My colleague and I were just talking about this. 10 years ago there was so much noise in the work rest rooms, so much laughter and chitter chatter but now silence... everyone is on their phone. It's quite sad how much things have changed. I worry for our children.

Ow that's harsh, I remember it too. In fact my earliest convos were on random buses with Grandma's and Being allowed to talk to strangers.

But you know alot of them are messaging each other with bitchy comments about their colleagues..

Nope.

I think we have older generations of people who blame phones for everything.

Back in the day. Before phones, kids were still ignored in restaurants, we just gave them colouring books or toys instead.

When I was younger and out with adults, we were just expected to sit bored out of our skulls, listening to the adults drone on about crap. Thankfully we didn't go out very much as it was less affordable.

Parents can't win, kids get whiny and loud, people complain, kids given tech, people complain.

DD spoke early so we were able to have conversations with her when out, but even then she could only do that for so long. We always had puzzles or colouring for her to do instead.

How about we leave people to do what works for them and stop making sweeping, baseless statements?

The parent may well have been talking to their child all day, the bus is a time they can just have some down time as it's the only time their child will sit quietly.

Haha yeh I wouldn't be surprised but you can see movement from alot of screens. Netflix or Tt or something similar

This is something I've pondered as well. At a big family party last week 5 kids were sat on the floor next to different plug sockets to keep their gadgets charged! Was a sight that did actually shock me a bit.

Absolutely right, education and communication begins at home!

We pretty much already have one unfortunately 😔

I'm not in the UK but people here do still chat to complete strangers. Not everyone obviously, but social chit chat is a feature of life here.

I agree. My son was a quiet child with few friends. He really struggled with making friends in person, smalltalk etc. He found it really hard starting uni in 2020 with the covid restrictions and not having any opportunity to make friends with his flatmates nor do any socialising. Having his smart phone was a godsend as he “socialised” via his phone and bonded with his flatmates whilst at home between Xmas and Easter 21 when uni students were sent home - they’d setup chat groups and really gelled when they weren’t there! Same happened with other interests such as supporting our local footie team - couldn’t watch games in person so loads of web chats were set up where he could join lots of different ones to gain virtual friends. He’s now got friends all over the country and travels around a lot to meet and stay with them, including lots of people he’d never have got to know inreal life only. It’s really good for the ones who don’t make friends randomly in person. Wish we’d had it 50/years ago!

Perhaps the elderly woman who might have liked to chat to the person next to her who is busy on their phone might think technology has contributed to her loneliness, but her seatmates, an autistic teenage boy chatting to his first ever friend (who happens to live 5000 miles away) about their shared interest, or the mum for whom being able to send her emails while traveling, and thus leave the office half an hour earlier, or do the weekly shop from her phone, makes the difference between seeing her child before they go to bed every evening, or meeting up with a friend for a coffee, thinks it's hugely benefitted them - because it enables them to spend time socialising with people they know and like over chatting to strangers.

This can't be emphasised enough. Great post.

We already have a generation of adults that are antisocial, I've observed whole families not interacting, looking at their phones and children on ipads. We've never been so well connected but people claim to be so lonely, today's young parents are a completely different breed when it comes to bringing up children and their attitude towards relationships, but sitting using devices most of the day is fine.

No really, I work in a place where sometimes we have downtime, waiting for an appointment or something and they actually message each other..
It's rather rude BC you can only assume it's something they wouldn't say to your face but probably better than whispering.

I wouldn't be too sure about the 99% interacting. If you add up the time each individual spends on their screen, it doesn't leave much time over. I think the average for teenagers is 4 hiurs/day as in 8till midnight. Scary!

I have a desktop but not a mobile phone.This means when I'm out and about I look at people and they tend to smile and nod at least. On the common, in the dark early mornings with the dog I always say "morning." Those with the earphones don't respond, of course.

This sounds like a "back in my day" thing, I remember when I was a kid when smartphones didn't exist seeing people in restaurants or on the bus with newspapers and books and the children sat with a colouring book doing their own thing, so just because it's a device doesn't make it any worse than that, a lot of the kids I've seen are doing an activity on the tablet like colouring so I don't see how that's any different to giving them a colouring book and pencils, not to mention some children struggle in those environments so giving them their device is a comfort to them, you only see a small amount of someone's day so you don't see the occasions where they are interacting with each other