dbguy:

I suppose I'm an old fart, but I really feel like constant multi-tasking, e.g. texting one friend while out with another group, takes away from the quality of regular, normal human interactions, for which there is still no substitute.

Yeah but people said the same thing about the telephone when that was the "new scary thing". I think it is often true that technology that brings us together can simultaneously diminish the quality of our interactions. But as with most of these technological advances the benefits usually outweigh the costs. And even if they don't it would be impossible to put the genie back into the bottle, so we all just have to make the best of it anyway.