In the opening track “No Man’s Land” on Billy Joel’s last album, River of Dreams, is the line:
I’ve seen the children with their boredom and their vacant stares
This immediately brought to mind people staring at their smartphones and scrolling endlessly through social media (which admittedly is a problem not just affecting The Youths, but everyone). The thing is, the album and song came out in 1993, which is 33 years ago as I write this.
1993 effectively predates the internet (as the public knows it) and predates social media and smart device addiction by decades.
Which makes me wonder, what did Joel know back then? Or was 1993 a lot worse than I remember?
1993, per Wikipedia.