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eyes fixed on a smartphone screen. With a smartphone

in hand, it is very easy to be mentally checked out from
everything else that is happening. People focus on their

phones and tune out the activity around them. This

distraction can lead to conflict between family members

and friends.

Science journalist Yudhijit Bhattacharjee summarized the
findings scientists are uncovering as they dig deeper into

the question of how smartphones affect users’ social lives:

The constant connectivity and access to information
that smartphones offer have made the devices

something of a drug for hundreds of millions of

users. Scientists are just beginning to research this
phenomenon, but their studies suggest that we are

becoming increasingly distracted, spending less time

in the real world and

being drawn more
“The constant connectivity and
access to information that deeply into the virtual
smartphones offer have made the
devices something of a drug for world. 9
hundreds of millions of users.” 9
—Science journalist In earlier generations,
Yudhijit Bhattacharjee
many teenagers did

not have smartphones.
Smartphones did not become popular and widely available

until the 2010s. Because of the smartphone and other

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