They're plugged into the highly curated social media shares of people they went to grade school with and haven't seen in 15 years, or worse they're plugged into the curated 'life' of complete strangers.
This is leading to anxiety, depression and even suicides
Anxiety, depression and suicides are nothing new. I don't blame on either ordinary or online social interaction. Instead I think social interaction is healthy, given it has a good quality, whether it's online or not.
A quick search gave me the information that death by suicide is going down. If there is an increase in anxiety and depression, I see no reason to blame social media. If used in a good way, social media make us feel well.
I don't think they are paid for having money. When saving money in a bank, you don't have the money. The bank has it, and you are being paid for letting them have your money.
I don't think noise is necessary. It's only that people are used to noise. I usually wear sound isolating earphones outdors, so I don't hear cars as much now. But to compensate for that I look more around. That's something everyone could learn. Exception is those that are blind, but I think they should be able to get some help from technology to warn them from cars.
I mean if you hear noise you can instantly know from where you hear it, you can most of the time know if the car is moving toward you or away from you and you know if it is close or far away.
If you see a laser on the road then you don't get any instant information, what if there are more then 1 car and project light.
Anyway I meant that sound in general, we can instantly know where the sound comes from and we do not need to actively think about it.
But they are plugged to the world, and more so than in the past when they were limited to people around them, books, newspapers etc.