I see a strong network effect here. Once all of your friends are hooked on their phone, it becomes very lonely to be the only one that doesn't stare at a scree

I see a strong network effect here. Once all of your friends are hooked on their phone, it becomes very lonely to be the only one that doesn't stare at a screen. But what people naturally yearn for is not to get bored alone, but to get bored as a group. So the "quality of bored-ness" goes down as screen usage expands.