seems to be less and less real to a lot of people. I especially worry about very small children (pre-school age) I see walking around with their eyes, brains and hands completely focused on the little screens their parents have given them.

Also will be interesting to see how this goes when the petrochemical civilization it all depends on begins to peter out.

Humans born into a 100% connected world is new territory for evolution. It'll be interesting to see what happens.

Everybody is still real, we always will be.

A dozen or so of us parents, kids, grandparents get together at a local restaurant annually.

I'm a grandparent and parent.

The kids sit at their own table.
The grownups sit at an adjoining table.
We talk.

The kids have their heads buried in various 'handheld devices'.
They don't talk to each other.
They're texting or playing games.

I try, but I have very little face to face conversation with my grandkids.

I have 2 little gtandsons; going to 1st birthday party for one next weekend, and the other is almost 5 months old. I DO hope their future contains ACTUAL human interactions.

I told my two young teenage grand kids (male 15 female 14) that electronic devices were not allowed at the Thanksgiving Dinner table, PERIOD. That actually got their attention, they stopped texting and Looked at me!!! I smiled and explained that I was Very Serious.
On Thanksgiving I learned that they did not lose their ability to verbally communicate; we had pleasant dinner conversation!!!

...some of your fellow/sister citizens are too stupid to even own a phone.

The adults were totally oblivious to oncoming traffic (DC metro area) and apparently unconcerned about the safety of the children. Fortunately everyone in cars hit the brakes.

This kind of thing happens so often--it's really a problem.

Grab a purse and run like crazy...no one will notice because everyone's too busy staring at their smartphone.