[alanbernstein]

Some people have long-term goals, and the distractions distract from accomplishing them. The qualitative difference is that people who can avoid the distractions are better able to make progress toward their goals.

Nobody wants to look back on their life and think "yep, I sure am glad I got all that facebooking in before I died."

[lordCarbonFiber]

That seems a bit reductive. Im sure plenty of people are going to look back and say "Im sure glad I reconnected with that college flame" or "Im sure glad I shared those pictures with my extended family".

For sure there is a whole host of negative effects that can spiral out of social media addiction. But the shear existence of the distraction is more neutral. I feel like we are hesitant to admit that many of our modern distractions aren't particularly "new"; it's just a lot easier to collect evidence and stats. Considering reading a tabloid and gossiping offline vs reading fake news and commenting on FB, etc.

[alanbernstein]

Sure. "connected with college flame" != mindlessly scrolling through facebook feed for 4 hours a day