> I was the kind of kid that was in front of the computer all day anyway. The author of the article actually calls that out specifically, and then points out s

> I was the kind of kid that was in front of the computer all day anyway. The author of the article actually calls that out specifically, and then points out she isn't talking about that older phenomenon, but how the advent of smartphones brought this sort of group chatter into our existence no matter where we are at any given time. To people who weren't used to spending all their waking hours in front of a screen already. From the article: > This kind of communication has been technologically possible for decades now, but for much of my lifetime it had to occur in fixed locations (in front of computers) at fixed times (when you were all online; this was back when the idea of being “online” or “offline” still had meaning). Then smartphones smashed that distinction.