Getting a Grip on the Great Smartphone Panic of 2018

And so it is with concerns about the social consequences of media tech. The 17th-century French scholar Adrien Baillet fretted that "the multitude of books which grows every day in prodigious fashion" would destroy civilization just like the "fall of the Roman Empire." The early days of radio spawned fears that the "compelling excitement of the loudspeaker" would distract children from their homework.

Now, a decade after the iPhone made its debut, people are discovering that smartphones and apps aren't immune to the notion of trade-offs.