A “soul mirror” is an interesting idea. Do you mean the modern smartphone is a mirror of ones soul because you just see what you want to see, you see what your soul is interested in?
I'm going to go with what your soul yearns for. Obviously this isn't a perfect analogy, because it implies mystic, Machiavellian, or omnipotent beings.
Its more like "the mirror of erised" from harry potter, perhaps better is the mirror from "The Snow Queen":
> which had this peculiarity, that everything good and beautiful that was reflected in it shrank… but that whatever was worthless or ugly became prominent.
But I would say its not the smartphone thats the problem, its specifically "broadcast" social media thats the problem. That is services were thirdparties, who you don't know personally, can produce content for your consumption. Those services are driven by pure engagement, rather than any other metric.
Anything that just constantly A/B tests what you engage with the most, and blindly optimises for whichever category you click on, is going to be bad for you, unless you have been given the tools and education to manage those categories. Even then, it might not be possible.
I still think kids need 1:1 and group chats, within reason, and with time limits so that they actually got to sleep, and stay asleep at night. So I'd say kids should probably still have smartphones, just not social media.
