It contributed by making access to social media far easier since before the advent of a smartphone (iPhone, Android, pick your poison), it was limited to PC's. People owning PC's skyrocketed in the mid/late 00's, but the groundwork was set in the 90's, and it was a limiting gateway (and combine that with parents of kids who grew up roughly in the 90's who basically forced their kids outside to play with friends instead of spending all their time cooped up inside on a PC, it was pretty healthy).
Early social media, such as MySpace, pretty much supplemented the real world and the relationships people had. It was a fun, new tool.
Facebook and the end of the 00's/beginning of the '10's is when the decline started as everyone and anyone jumped on it, it made social media mainstream, and it was the turning point when social media began to supplant, not supplement.
Now we've had a generation or two practically raised on social media, or rather a new generation (who are in the single digits or teens) raised by a generation which was raised on social media (parents in their late twenties and thirties), and the damage is evident.
Early social media, such as MySpace, pretty much supplemented the real world and the relationships people had. It was a fun, new tool.
Facebook and the end of the 00's/beginning of the '10's is when the decline started as everyone and anyone jumped on it, it made social media mainstream, and it was the turning point when social media began to supplant, not supplement.
Now we've had a generation or two practically raised on social media, or rather a new generation (who are in the single digits or teens) raised by a generation which was raised on social media (parents in their late twenties and thirties), and the damage is evident.