In Progress, and may very well never receive a finalized version.

I have seen the best minds of my generation destroyed by smart phones and consumer pop culture.

I've had a streak of seeing good friends for the first time in a year or so and having it go badly. (The lack of visiting is due to a combination of distance, since like good middle Americans we scattered across the country, as well as the COVID phobia that people still have.) And it's went bad the same way each time:

• We plan on a visit a few days in advance. Plans are kept vague, eg. "let's see if anyone else is in the area" or "we'll just hang until we figure something else out."
• I get there, we talk a bit, but inevitably before ten minutes have gone by we're sitting in front of a TV hooked up to a streaming device.
• Spend something like half an hour browsing through streaming menus and not seeing anything. This is partially due to the horrendous sorting on those menus, partially due to whatever anyone is interested in always having just left the service, and partially due to me not wanting to binge a complete season of the new Star Wars or whatever (which is usually one of the first suggestions.)
• I have tried bringing my own movies on disc, bringing something else to do (like a board game), etc. to avoid this. It never works. Either I get the response "hey, we'll find something to watch here first and then we'll try that out" or I'll just flat out get shot down ex. "that movie looks too old/artsy/obscure/etc."
• Eventually we find something that neither one of us is too satisfied with, but at least it's there. For example it might be a dumb "adult animation" comedy that I don't like and my friend has seen dozens of times.
• We watch, but I try to keep a side conversation going (without speaking so much that it would be impossible to watch the show.)
• This works at first, but soon my friend stops responding much. Whenever this happens it's always been because of a smartphone; either browsing the web, playing a gacha game, doing some shopping, whatever. Before long we're sitting in silence, me trying to find some way to do anything but watch something I don't like much anywyay, and my friend zoned out on the phone.
• When there is a break in viewing the first suggestion will always be "hey, let's steram something else." If we manage to get off that, the next suggestion will be to see a movie in theaters (which is often a very similar experience.) The only other possibility is going to a bar, where we will have a few drinks and maybe get into a conversation about a recent TV show.
• After a few hours I will take the first opportunity to leave. This will always be met with "are you sure? There's lots more that we could do tonight," but it's clear what that's going to be, so I get out of there.

The thing is that it's not like these friends can't talk about anything else or do anything else. When I talk to them on the phone we always end up talking about far more than entertainment. But when I visit them in person, it's the same boring story. It's like they no longer can comprehend "entertainment" beyond turning on the latest mass market TV show or movie, even though they lack the interest to actually pay attention away from their phones. And since when you meet with someone you must "entertain," it's that every single time.

It's sad to think that the days when we set up LAN parties and played trading card games, those were the heights of our sociality. And it's not only nerds like us; it seems like everyone in my generation acts like this now.