I'd be quite surprised if the problem were actually screen use rather than the cognitive and emotional effects of feed-based content delivery that optimizes for

I'd be quite surprised if the problem were actually screen use rather than the cognitive and emotional effects of feed-based content delivery that optimizes for so-called engagement. By that term, web-oriented people usually mean staying on the site/platform, not necessarily engaging with the actual content or fellow users. Whether it's an endless-scrolling social media feed or auto-play on YouTube, we're up to our eyeballs in companies that are doing their damnedest to keep us in continual anticipation of the next blob of content coming down the pipe rather than looking away. To the extent that a difference is observed with screens, I suspect it's not some intrinsic inferiority in screens as a medium, but rather a behavioral link between being in that context and the activation of feed-conditioned habits. Television has had a larval form of this pattern for decades, but with television there were at least times when the spell was broken because "nothing's on". Nobody could analyze all your habits and interests on an individual level and create your perfect "channel" that's on the air all day, every day. That's what we're moving toward now, and it's becoming more apparent with time that even being a few steps down that road doesn't seem entirely healthy. I don't have a fistful of neuroscience studies to cite, let alone a solution, but I have a bad feeling that this is going to get worse before it gets better.