I think that smartphones merely illuminate a pre-existing problem. That problem is that people, as a rule, live in a dream-world. The smartphone just provides

I think that smartphones merely illuminate a pre-existing problem. That problem is that people, as a rule, live in a dream-world. The smartphone just provides the most convenient exterior manifester of dreams that we've invented so far. The cellphone is a dream-amplifier. The natural evolution from books, radio and tv. But the central problem isn't the phone. It's our habitual-dwelling-in and preference-for the dreamworld. The phone is just the enabler.