I must confess to be wanting in imagination. Widespread adoption of smartphones has led to a fall in social skills. Examples are pervasive, such a family members fooling with their devices rather than talking to each other at meals and our recent discussions of dysfunctional dating behaviors, such as the collapse in the ability to flirt, it had not occurred to me that these changes in habits were so extensive as to generate changes in personality, or if one prefers, temperament. But a new Financial Times account makes just this case, focusing on the most marked character change, that of a fall in conscientiousness.

Now admittedly, it is common throughout history for oldsters to complain about the comparative unfitness of the young to be trusted with responsibility. But the story by John Burn-Murdoch provides data that shows that all age cohorts are showing changes in personality that work against