Hi Mikha,
This is an interesting article. You bring up a lot of questions that really make me wonder.
I try hard to be more present and aware when I'm in person with family and friends. It's not easy though.
I read somewhere the average person checks their smart phone 2,000 times per day!
I grew up in the old fashioned world before cell phones and the Internet, but I try to think back and I wonder how we all got along without these things.
I know technology has changed a lot of things for people these days, some good and some bad. The bad things are quite damaging though, like changing the way we think, greatly shortening our attention spans and creating new addictions that didn't exist 20 years ago (i.e. looking at our phones 2,000 times a day), becoming apathetic in real life and being a different persona online (as you mentioned).
It's all very interesting yet scary at the same time.
Thanks for the article.
Jess