I wouldn't equate all wastes. Most forms of play have some derivative benefits. Social media and trash content on YouTube seems to have no benefit whatsoever. Of course we had TV whereupon the same critique of unbeneficial waste applies, but I think one big difference is that it became boring quickly. By contrast things such as social media and YouTube provide practically endless entertainment.

Even video games have lost their benefit. When 'we' were younger, games tended to be difficult which instilled perseverance and required the development of skill. That or you got frustrated and went and did something else. Now games, and by this I mostly mean AAA type stuff, have become far more passive forms of entertainment with most of all challenge removed.

This feels like a 'back in my day' rant, but one major difference is that there is quantifiable data to indicate ongoing negative changes in society such, as mentioned in a peer post, the contemporary reversal of the Flynn Effect. [1]

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect

I mean, I wasted hundreds of hours playing online games as a middle-schooler. Got so addicted that I decided I wanted to learn to make one, so I taught myself C, then C++, then Java when it came out. One thing led to another, I got a few internships, then a job, a CS major, another job, and 15 years later I was one of those Google engineers gaming dopamine cycles for a buck. And the cycle completes!