[shearnie]

I wonder if it’s actually the screens themselves, or the disengagement of the parent where screens fill the void? Did TV do the same thing two decades ago?

[ClumsyPilot]

I agree, it's like asking "does eating bread damage your health" - in what context?

If you take it away, would these people be eating fruit&veg, or would they be starving?

[c0nducktr]

TV is just another screen though, right?

[shantly]

TV was a lot more boring than the Internet. Even most 80s and 90s cable didn’t have so many channels that you could keep thinking that if you watched the schedule scroll by one more time you’d find something amazing, let alone OTA TV. If you wanted a movie you hadn’t already watched ten times, you had to drive somewhere. That kind of thing.

[edit] actually boring’s not right—it was just easier to know whether there was anything you wanted to watch on. With the Internet the answer is always “yes”, you just may not have found it yet.