While returning to his home in Greenwich Village on the metro, Francis Menton noticed that culturally we seem to have hit “100% peak smartphone saturation.”

Mr. Menton, aka The Manhattan Contrarian, caught metro riders viewing their smartphones. He snapped photos, first to his left and then to his right. Every rider was absorbed in a smartphone.

Of course, what everyone is viewing is open to debate, acknowledges Mr. Menton before speculating, “Could this phenomenon be related to the near total disappearance of critical thinking among young people today?”

Stock photo above. See Francis Menton’s original photos here.

Critical Thinking

The earliest records of critical thinking reportedly are the teachings of Socrates, according to Plato. Socrates established the fact that one cannot depend upon those in “authority” to have sound knowldege and insight. Socrates demonstrated that persons may have power and high position and yet be deeply confused and irrational.

Socrates maintained that for an individual to have a good life or to have one that is worth living, he must be a critical questioner and possess an interrogative soul. He established the importance of asking deep questions that probe profoundly into thinking before we accept ideas as worthy of belief.