If you were up for a job against someone with equal skills/experience and whose social media presence demonstrated communication skills and a knowledge of the field and yours was filled with posts like the one you just made, who do you think would get the job? While you and I may be old enough that having a good social media presence does not matter much when it comes to job interviews and socialization in general it has a fairly large impact on the lives of the younger generations and it is far more complicated than their being addicted to their phones. In the article "essential" was clearly used in the context of being an important and fundamental part of modern life, not suggesting it was the equivalent of food.