F.O.A.D. wrote:

I also am annoyed by people using their smartphones as computer
terminals while they drive, talk, shop, et cetera, and I wonder if
there ever is any enforcement invoked against those who are fiddling
with their phones while they drive. I know there are laws against it,
but enforcement and citations? I dunno.

On the other hand, there are many legitimate reasons to have access to
email and other applications when you are away from your home or
office computer, and the smartphones prove their value in those
instances.

The decline in personal, face to face communications began in earnest
with the advent in the 1980s of bulletin boards and commercial
services like CompuServ. All the smart phones have done in that regard
is make such "communication" more accessible and portable.

I see virtually none of the foul behavior you mentioned on the
moderated boards I frequent for chatting and learning more about
boating, computers, smart phones. I see very little of it on FaceBook,
but then, I do pick and choose my friends there, and if I encounter
someone who is overly aggressive or foul-mouthed or insulting, I just
drop that person. I'm in a couple of affinity groups with literally
hundreds of posters and virtually everyone seems to behave reasonably.

rec.boats was a reasonably pleasant place until the extreme righties
drove almost everyone off. Most of the posters here are righties, and
they've tea-partied the joint. There's less than a handful of us
remaining here who are moderate right to moderate left and in the middle.

The "extreme righties" drove off your sock puppets, deadbeat? Go get a
job and pay your taxes, loser.