It’s true that smartphones distract you from real life and turn you into a zombie. But what smartphone critics fail to realize is that it’s better to be a zombie than to be engaged in whatever passes for “real life” these days.
I hear what you are saying but you make it sound like those are the two choices. It distracts you from a life of growth and closeness to Hashem. The fact that it pulls you away from the world of sheker and is a better choice than that “real world” isn’t overlooked by the critics, it is just an irrelevant piece. Know what I mean?