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.

@JoanCollinsDiva are your dcs all NT? Have you had help and support for your dcs, 2 parents, any health issues/childcare, time to yourself/work/SAHM/MAID? Have they grown up in today's world? You mentioned eating out since birth, with 4, that can't be cheap. I'd need to know more to make an opinion on your comment tbh.

Well, working in a school, I know that children talk to each other, given the chance, as much as they've ever done. First day of term at break time, they all gathered in groups excitedly to chat.

On trains people tend to be viewing their phones, but in the past it would have been reading books or newspapers. Reading was once seen as a modern scourge, tv certainly was too.....

I agree. There've always been people wanting "quiet" time, such as reading a book or newspaper. Tablets/phones are just the modern equivalent.

My son has a huge circle of friends, most made via the internet and social media, yet that doesn't stop him meeting them in person, which he enjoys sometimes, and sometimes not. He "gelled" with his Uni flat mates, not actually at Uni - he barely spoke to them in the first term, but second term, they were home because of Covid bans and he really got to know them through group chats etc., and they're now firm friends - mostly by internet as they're spread apart, but they do get together a few times per year for face to face catch ups, pub crawls, meal, etc.

The internet and SM has opened up the World to "quieter" people like my son who doesn't make friends face to face easily.

Exactly, but when I pointed that out upthread, I was told that was "different" somehow, lol.

I do wonder if some of it is snobbery - books are seen as "naice" and middle class and intelligent. Screens are linked to gaming and doom-scrolling on TikTok.

It's not them watching screens all the time, it's what they're watching that matters. If they're only watching dodgy youtube videos or mindless games, then that's a problem, but if they're playing games with educational value (knowledge, logic, etc) or watching current affairs from reputable sources, or interested in facts, etc, that's a good thing, not bad. I think a young child sat watching something of value and interest on a tablet is a hell of a lot better than them watching mindless drivel on Cbeebies on the television!