> I don’t think young people appreciate how talking to strangers in public went from common and acceptable to creepy and taboo in the last 15 years

... uh, what? I meet people (i.e., "talk to strangers") all the time in public, it hasn't changed at all (and I've been doing it for far longer than 15 years). OK, work's a little different (but that was never particularly a place (for me, anyway) to meet people), but the rest? Don't see the "creepy and taboo" at all.