This certainly explains a lot. Always wondered if those meandering pedestrians randomly stopping in the middle of the sidewalk or bumbling around the supermarket weren’t on some type of drugs.
Temporary numbing yourself is does not make the root of your anxiety go away. Probably the worst thing you can do long term.
Depends on the cause of the anxiety. For a lot of cases numbing the response is very helpful to moving forward. What the article doesn’t mention though is the moving forward bit, doesn’t seem to be any investment in CBT or counselling just the usual sling drugs at it.
That’s why I said long term. I see people pretty much get dependent on meds where their anxiety is actually about running out of them.
CBT as a treatment for anxiety? 
While wasting time on the internet, I just happened to come across a video discussing why it’s really a bad thing to waste time on the internet. The speaker ties this in to generalized anxiety (although he doesn’t use that phrase specifically) and has an interesting take on how the Facebook generation is inevitably going to be anxious and miserable. Skip ahead to about 3:41 if you want to listen to the particular rant about cellphones and social media:
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ok, just throw in my face… I’m not watching it, I don’t want to know.
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Actually, the video isn’t really about how to waste time. It reminded me of these.
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No, I know - I was just pointing out that I’m doing exactly what he says you shouldn’t do if you want to avoid an anxiety-filled life 
I’m not sure how much research there is behind his theory, but I know there is some on cellphone/internet addiction. I’ve definitely seen any number of people (not just young people) whose happiness seems to be dependent on their internet connection.
Anyway, I was just musing on whether this might go some way to explaining the OPs link.