“Whatever happened to face-to-face conversations?” is a pseudo-question, too often bandied about when teachers like me remark on their students’ apparent obsession with their phones. But this whole notion is the product of myth and legend. In my experience, most young people have no problem being separated from their mobile and they certainly haven’t lost the art of conversation. While it is easy to understand why this stereotype has developed, it does real disservice to the very significant potential that palm-sized technology holds. I would argue that, in the last five years in particular, social media, accessed almost exclusively on mobile devices, has had the effect of producing more compassionate, globally aware, politically active and emotionally intelligent