I've been working as a tech support consultant for a local computer repair shop for the past few months, and I haven't seen much of a drop in computer sales.
What I have seen are more computers (desktops and laptops) taking on more tablet-like qualities, especially touchscreens.
Which boggles my mind given that we already had two perfectly good input tools, neither of which involve smudging skin oil all over one's monitor.
The hardcore gaming rigs seem completely unaffected, but they also provide different input options, especially console controllers with USB plugs.
Partly it's the interface on these new phones and tablets - they're not conducive to typing out long messages. Or to reading them. Partly it's that younger people don't care about opinion debate. They've grown up in a culture of internet and media 'spin', and they know better than to believe any of it. Or they just don't care. They use their phones and tablets to connect with their friends, and to find things, not to post opinions or debate issues.
Especially when such debates tend to turn into ad hominem shouting matches if embarked upon with strangers (*coughTOLcough*), or result in drama and potentially lost relationships if done among friends.
Though it confuses me that teens and young adults (and, startlingly enough, older adults) are still using "LOL," "BRB," etc. when we've had phones able to send paragraphs in a single text message for years now.
And with predictive text it's easier than ever to text in complete sentences.
I haven't seen a drop in political discussion among my particular circle online, but I can understand that if educated young adults see nothing but insults being hurled like grenades by extremists over a digital no-man's-land, they'd be hesitant to join the fray.
Especially since college-educated adults tend to have much more nuanced positions regarding political issues, having been exposed to a larger variety of viewpoints (and individual, real people) than their less- or uneducated counterparts, and bringing a nuanced position into the typical political forum online is like a trained swordsman walking into a roomful of drunkards with clubs.
One cuts and stabs and slices, but no matter how one rhetorically makes them bleed, one's opponents just keep swinging the same old oversimplified, propaganda-fueled cliches.
Every political (and religious) forum in which I've ever participated should have been named "I Come To Fight".
Interaction with real people with real names and real faces can lead to greater understanding, of another's perspective if not of the world at large.
But too many people go online NOT seeking understanding, but seeking validation of the position they've already set in stone, and are apparently willing to be the worst sort of person in order to feel that validation.
