"The worst part is that it wasn't like this 10 years ago."

I'm from the United States. I'm not sure about you, but smartphones took-over my social circles in 2011. So it definitely was like this 15 years go for us. Before that, laptops were everywhere by 2007 and people spent a huge amount of time with those. Before that, people had been spending tons of time playing video games, watching movies, and reading books. This is how life was from as early as I could remember (the late 80s, early 90s) to be honest. Maybe just the family I grew up in? We all seemed to love to read and tinker with computers and video games.

If anything, I spend less time in front of a screen or a book today than I did 20 years ago. Just as a personal preference to spend more time with my wife and kids and more time in nature.