“We’re seeing autistic-like characteristics in children without autism,” she told me. “Lack of smile response, delayed verbal skills. [The ones] I used to affectionately call ‘busy children’ [are now] just kids that are kind of running around aimlessly or conversely zombified when they’re not on the tech . . . You have kids—for that matter, adults now—that are used to being on the tech for extensive periods of time.
