Replacing Real Life With Screen Time

IN MOST PUBLIC PLACES in America, everyone is staring at their smart phone, tapping at it with both thumbs. Even I've noticed that, and I don't get out much. I go to the senior center everyday, where only about a fourth of the people are staring and tapping at small screens, which is probably the lowest percentage of any age group in the country. The millennials, I've noticed, are particularly attached to their phones. It may not be possible to tell children and force children to reduce their screen time, get out and exercise a little, live some real life, while we the adult population simultaneously walk around like zombies, staring and thumb tapping. On campus at the major university near me every student, yes, every student walking across campus is walking while staring, and tapping. And their walking pace is fast. Very fast. Even a steady jog for me is slower than the millennial's walking pace on college campus. Amazingly, nobody ever runs into anything. They never run into each other, amazingly, and they don't get hit by cars, or tun into telephone poles, water fountains, or trees. Its almost as if they have some sort of built in radar. Either that, or they've had a lot of practice. The average American spends an incredible amount of time in front of a screen, if you include smart phones, laptops, and television. Something like between seven and ten hours a day. So, anytime you're wondering what somebody, anybody, might be doing, there's a decent chance the answer involves a screen. One wonders how that all bodes for the future, our future. Will we all eventually have chips implanted just under the skin on our foreheads, through which we can see and use a virtual computer screen anytime we want? Why not? It would appear that there is no limit to the computer gadgets people want. That's the scary part, our apparent willingness and even desire to replace real life with screen time.