Kids who grow up with and communicate through devices in their hands are sometimes referred to as the “silent generation”. Social awareness and intelligence that’s in-person, requires social interactions to be done in-person. There are social cues that cannot be learned through a device. I’m not saying that I don’t communicate through my phone, because I do. The irony is that you’re reading this on a device. But I grew up before these cell phones existed, when the best way to communicate at a distance was to actually talk on the phone, which is a higher form of communication than texting and messaging. I’m not naive enough to think that the tide will be stemmed, but you should know that balance is key, and that the predominance of digital communication is stunting the social growth of the silent generation. Depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts are all up in young people, whereas dating and relationships are down, and has now started to decline America’s birth rate with the younger adults having significantly less children. The dad advice is to spend less time on communication through any social media and more time in-person. It will produce rewards for the rest of your life.