As a dumb phone user I have noticed this paradox. Smartphones allow you to do things on your own. That completely rules out random encounters or discussions. If you have a question instead of asking someone and start a conversation you can just Google it. No need to ask your way to locals, you have Google map.
This is interesting. I recently heard a similar example that pointed out that say for a simple query like "who won that game between so and so a few years ago", you could easily look it up online and get an answer in a few seconds. But you would be missing the back and forth of follow up questions and such that would arise if you asked a person. And that could be a whole conversation in itself. In that sense, the question of who won the game ceases to be what is interesting about the potential conversation. Like if I go look up that question and get an answer privately without sharing it with someone do I even care about the answer? Taking that further, it's almost like having the ability to look up answers completely misses that the point of asking it in the first place is to further human interaction and experience.
Not totally true. I'm still asking questions from time to time to people because I'm confused about place or how to do things (I'm living in a foreign country). Depending on the context some people are glad to converse instead of being on their phones. Creating long term relationships is very hard, but small talk isn't much harder than before.
> Depending on the context some people are glad to converse instead of being on their phones
I believe GP's point is not that people aren't glad to converse or that small talk is hard, it's just that almost nobody approaches people to ask questions anymore because we have answers in our phone.
