Some curmudgeons seem to think that before the internet, people were constantly engaging in meaningful conversation wherever they went, fully immersed in the present. Realistically, humans have always gone out of their way to avoid others through petty distraction. Photos from the fifties that show a packed subway of people buried in their newspapers only proves that we've always found a way to dodge unwanted social interaction. So if anyone ever scoffs at your meme-scrolling, just know that you're no better or worse than anyone else in history who preferred consuming distracting content over making eye-contact with strangers.