People who walk along the street with their heads down, staring at their phones, are enemies of society. They are narcissistic babies who have unilaterally derogated from the social contract that says you should look where you’re going to make sure you don’t bump into people. They implicitly believe that others should do that cognitive work for them while they shuffle along scrolling for porn or doom. If, however, a normal person bumps into them they will be enraged at the unpleasant reminder that other human beings exist outside their solipsistic bubble. Meanwhile, they are walking so slowly that everyone behind them, too, is inconvenienced; they are prime contributors to urban congestion and alienation and the general breakdown of the fabric of society.
All that is true enough, but The Extinction of Experience has a lot of other complaints about modern technology. Young folk these days can’t do joined-up handwriting, and taking lecture notes on laptops is worse for their understanding. People photograph their food in restaurants and themselves in tourist hotspots. People don’t stare into space while waiting any more. We are losing the knack for analogue, face-to-face communication.
