It think about this a lot commuting on trains and subways. It's incredible how almost every person is 100% preoccupied with their own personal device (myself included unfortunately). I deactivated my Facebook for about a month and just went back and already kinda notice myself just sharing things to get those bits of digital validation. I want to break away and start up more face-to-face conversations, but it's so much easier just staying in that little bubble. sigh
If you're looking for some inspiration on quitting the social media dig, I cut the cord two years ago and haven't looked back since. And let me tell you, it's pretty much the bee's knees. When I first clicked that blue 'Deactivate My Account' button people close to me were sending texts... Is everything okay? Are you feeling all right? People thought I was going to kill myself or had terminal cancer or something because I deleted my Facebook account. Yikes. But really, it's had the opposite effect of depression... Now, I have to go out of my way to contact people and get together to find out what's happening in everyone's lives. It has forced me to 'do lunch' with more people and I hang out with my friends a lot more as a result. I dropped Twitter a few months ago and now (besides Hubski and occasionally reddit) I guess you could call me relatively social media free. And now that I'm not spending time reading all those details about everyone else's mundane lives, I have more time that I'm not attached to my cellphone/computer to do other things. I'd encourage you to do the same. Yes, it takes more effort, but I ended up much happier.