Western society has been dumb down A LOT over the decades anon. When society overall gets more and more greedy, lazy and stupid the conditions get worse and worse: be it financial, civil, social, academic, political, across the board and many will notice it but be helpless to stop the cancerous rot. That is what has happened. I think smartphones only made it all the worse is all. They were not the cause but they did quicken the die off of functioning brain cell matter. Much like an alcoholic over the years.... their memory and cognition gets worse and worse over time, a few decades later onset dementia facing inevitable drooling death.