Staring At Screens All Day Will Make You Antisocial

I wonder how much of that has changed because of phone usage vs. the phones just making it more obvious. At least in the literal case shown in the image, I remember mass transit before phones where many people were buried in a book or newspaper and the younger ones listened to music when the walkman came out and got cheaper. Making eye contact wasn't more or less awkward then than now. I remember attempts to start conversations were awkward more often than not and how often I was surprised people missed what seemed like obvious things like someone in a costume or wildlife. If anything, I felt like the number of people who try to sell you stuff through visual ads or to get something from you by pretending to start a friendly conversation trained many to ignore things and people around them.

Plus I don't think it is reasonable to expect everyone to be sociable at all times, and in a city you don't have as many non-public options for alone time. I'm not sure it was better pretending to be sociable when not. Even before smart phones, I knew quite a few people saying they read or listened to music, specifically because they needed some alone time and wanted it to be more clear.