It could well be a generational thing... like if you had your childhood in the 80's, while cell phones I believe were around in the late eighties early nineties,they were heavy and unwieldly, only businessmen used them, it was only in the mid to late nineties that cell phones became more popular, and the internet was still in it's infancy landlines were still well used. So as teenagers and young adults while most people had cell phones , they were not exactly essential items. So people of that generation might look at the next one on and think WTF? When people literally are emotionally attached them.
There has been negative effects in my opinion from modern usage, people have lost communication skills, seemingly average and uninteresting people believe they are the centre of the universe,making sure all their 'friends' know all their movements and it is all based in plastic as in reality they are not the centre of the universe and no one save immediate family members gives a shyt. All this modern usage also makes the job of the police extremely easy when gathering evidence for court. You can pick up some very interesting info listening to peoples phone conversations ,some people have got a bit unaware of their surroundings and the people in them and it could get them into trouble. It's like facebook, some people are amazingly candid about their children, where they live, their jobs, just hope they don't have any enemies....