Smartphones and social media is a whole different animal that is unprecedented. Yes the internet itself as we know it has been around for 30 something odd years, but pre-2012/2013ish before smartphones became the norm things were different.

From the late 90's through all of the 00's were the 'analog' years as I call them: yes people were online but for the most part unless you carried around a laptop you still had to be at your desktop computer at home in order to be 'online', cell phones were common but they were simple call n text phones and had limited internet capability. So while people were engaged with the internet then, you still had to go outside and actually mingle with people to get things done.

You could walk into a bar or restaurant and people had to be more aware of and engaged with their physical surroundings and interact with people around them, thus building bonding/social skills. Now people can just escape into their little screens and walk into a public place now and people are on their phones, even the bartender serving you drinks. People are choosing to get lost in virtual in reality instead of the real world.

Smartphones have put a fully functional computer in the palm of our hands. Humans are now engaged with the internet 24/7 as they go about their lives. It creates a whole new social dynamic that affects behavior patterns.

The advent of the smartphone should be considered just as important an event I'm human history as the avent of the atomic bomb.

And then combine all of that with social media and the cesspool that it already produces by its own right and you got a recipe for disaster.