Yes, you’re right — it’s hard to generalize because smartphones intersect with broader questions about how much screen time we allow, how we manage social media, our feelings about the promise and dangers of the unfiltered Internet, and so on. None of these issues is simple. But what stands out for me is just how thoroughly a smartphone ingrains itself into life, changing and supplanting our old and time-honored patterns.

I sometimes think about television when I was a child. Some children’s parents were more restrictive than others about the when & what of television watching, some children had a television in their room, but no child was able to walk around with a television in their pocket and at their perpetual command. The analogy isn’t perfect, but it shows how far we’ve come. Even as parents become (overly) restrictive about things like diet and walking alone, they increasingly surrender control on this issue.