Doesn’t mention what transitioned the Millenials into phones: The Game Boy. And before that, the television. However television is much more passive than gaming, the video games came first then social media and mobile phones gamified real-life simulation.
Edit: I like games as much as the next person, but come on let’s be real. I have a very difficult time putting my phone down and when I was a kid I had a difficult time putting the Game Boy down. It’s a habit first. It’s a dependence second.
It’s a good counterpoint on the book’s premise, but I think completely disagreeing with the potential for social media to cause mental harm is toxic and avoids a conversation worth engaging with. If we are going to give our kids social media or highly incentivizing games at a young age, we should be prepared for a generation that is completely dependent on artificial dopamine rushes.
Of course the science will have a hard time proving that when there’s hundreds of billions of dollars invested against finding substantial evidence to suggest social media and gaming can create toxic feedback loops.