I find it amusing that people who complain the loudest about the “loss of connectivity” with family due to the demon iPhone/smartphone are the same ones who are now spending time on the Internet posting their complaints on Free Republic to complete strangers known only by their Freepers name.
A smartphone is simply a tool, or many tools in one small devise. Any tool can be misused and abused. The Internet can be misused and abused. A plain old phone can be misused, etc. I remember my parents complaining about us teenagers spending too much time talking to friends on the phone.
Any type of activity can be misused and abused whether it’s old tech or new tech. Lack of family connectivity occurred before there were TV sets or the Internet. Lack of love, lack of concern for one another, selfishness, alcohol abuse, stress over money and work - all those things existed before technology came along and all those things contributed to family problems long before the iPhone.
And if someone moved across country or overseas, you may rarely have heard anything from them, and certainly not in a timely manner. Now servicemen can say hello from their overseas deployments in real time.