Re: Mystifying...
@Ramses Niblick...
I think you forgot to end your comment with "No, you can't have your ball back kids, and stay off my damn lawn!"
It's a true sign that you've gotten old and irrelevant when you start blasting the "kids these days" for their "new fangled ways".
This new generation aren't "disengaging" or "playing" when they are on their mobile devices. Have you ever asked them what they are actually doing? They are COMMUNICATING with each other. This generation is the most connected we have ever seen. As a result, they are far more empathetic and more likely to care about the plight of people they have never even met. Stephen Pinker proposes that humanity has become far more peaceful than ever in history in part due to the development of low-cost printing and narrative story telling. People could see the plight of others and actually started caring. This connected generation is a huge step further down that path. I, for one, welcome our future millennial overlords, and I'm barely a Gen-Y.
It seems to me you have your own definition of what makes communication and interaction "real", and that you are unable to see things from the perspective of a new generation raised in a connected world. The "ideal" you seem to pine for is where people are only friendly with, and concerned about the plight of, those who they personally know and spend time with in person. This is a myopic view of community that limits the potential of humanity to truly become a global community that values all lives equally.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
