When it comes down to it, the only truly engaging medium for socializing that fully encompasses nuance, body language, intent, and etiquette norms is in person. If you remove any of those elements, you compromise the message in various ways.

Given that, social media is flawed by its very nature. Talking on the phone itself had drawbacks…but texting and interacting by typing at each other are a whole other level of compromised. Add commercialization and political influences and it’s become quite a cesspool.

It’s still a useful medium, but it needs to be a tertiary form of connecting…not a primary one in any way. Families need to emphasize actual human interaction over ‘face in screen’. As things are, what I observe is a gradual degradation in everyone’s ability to interact with one another.