I chock this up to a growing conflict between the past and the future of our civilization. A past where the only place you could be was exactly where you were, whether you liked it or not. A future where you can be anywhere, do anything, with anyone.

Take a minute, and imagine all the places you would rather be right now, and imagine you could have anyone there with you. That's what humans lust for; it's why we spend so much money on vacations to exotic locations, or to live in nicer neighborhoods; nicer homes. But for the greater part of our history it has been exactly that; costly and time consuming. In the future, virtual worlds will be indistinguishable from the real world, and so the choice between the two will be simple. Why sit in an ugly cubicle in a stuffy office when you can be on a beach doing your work? Why drive 50 miles to visit an old friend, when both of you can go to the top of Mount Everest in the blink of an eye? Are your kids safe at school? Of course they are, because they are not physically at school, while at the same time getting lessons from the best teachers around the world.

It can be easy to imagine that world, and be horrified by it, because we fear that we will use it only for pleasure; never work. All those things experiences which will be common place in the future, are luxuries now. So they seem like pleasures, vacations. They will merely be commonplace, though; a normal part of your day. Have smart phones and the internet destroyed work ethic? Of course not. People always goofed off that much. Your grandfather didn't work harder than you; he probably just did more manual labor than our more service oriented job-o-sphere.

As for the fear of technology disconnecting people, I call baloney. Perhaps it has long been forgotten now, but it used to be that you'd kiss your loved ones goodbye in the morning and then never hear from them again until it was evening. Sometimes your significant other didn't show up. Stuck at work? Decided to hang out with friends? Mugged on the streets? Who knows! Then came along the telephone. Now you can stay in touch with those you care about, whenever you want. I don't call that technology destroying humanity. That's technology doing the most beautiful thing it can do; connect us.

Back to what I was getting at about the past and future colliding. If we're ultimately headed into a future where we spend most of our lives living in the virtual/augmented, then what we see today is that awkward in-between phase. Because of the limitations of today, our exotic virtual worlds are crude websites like Hacker News, Twitter, Reddit, etc. But they are virtual worlds. They're little vacations we can go on. We get to meet new people, read new stories, experience new things. It's primitive. But it's already powerful. We forget so easily, because of the crudeness of the technology, that when we're online we are interacting with other live human beings. The only difference between that and the real world is that it isn't triggering our primal sense of reality. That will change.

When I'm walking down the street, I see an ugly suburban landscape. I don't want to be there. I want to be on the exotic, tropical island called Hacker News reading about the success or failure of someone's dream, and maybe chat with them about it. That's beautiful to me. And thanks to modern technology I can choose to do that. A decade ago, I couldn't. I would have been stuck, staring at the cold concrete under my feet, awkwardly making conversation with someone I have nothing in common with.

In other words, the author of the article talks about experiencing the world around you. But that speaks to old notions about what is around us. A hundred years ago, the world around us was limited to what was physically, gravitationally around us. Today, the world around us includes that which our smart phones allow us to see. We can experience not just our local space, but the lives of those halfway around the world. I say, don't isolate yourself, pick up the phone and experience the world around you.

Now, I preach on this a bit because I don't see many people doing it. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate articles like Mr. Gattuso's, and I'll explain why in a moment. But I hardly ever see views like the one I expressed, written about. I believe it is because we're in such an awkward in-between right now. And it's hard to notice just how much good technology has done, especially if you demonize it. We don't question our ability to call our loved ones and let them know that we'll be a few hours late that night. It has become so much a part of the human experience, that when we demonize technology, we ignore how much we'll truly lose if we "put down the phone."

Again, I do appreciate Mr. Gattuso's article greatly and all others like it. It's a reminder to us all that we need to be careful and adapt. Yes, the powerful new ability to be anywhere, and do anything, with anyone, will cause problems for a large group of people. Just like gambling is a problem for a lot of people. But this has always been the case. Everyone uses something to escape from where they should be. Books, TV, daydreaming, etc. It takes real effort to live a healthy and happy life; it never was easy. Personally, being an introvert, I'm all too familiar with how much effort it can take to have a healthy social life. Is ever advancing technology going to make it easier to be unhealthy and unhappy? Yes! Of course! Just like alcohol can be used responsibly to relax, and used irresponsibly to destroy lives. Smartphones too are a double-edged sword. But on the whole, my opinion is that technologies like these will not introduce problems that did not already exist. And the benefits they will provide, to connect us in ways we've never experience before in mankind's history, will provide such a tremendous wealth to our civilization we must not stop it.

TL;DR: Put down your smartphone when you are where you want/should be. Pick it up, when you want to be somewhere else. How is that evil?