Of course it's not a requirement. The same way a knife isn't required to spread butter - you can use a spoon. If you were to attempt to keep up with say, javascript the way you used to learn you'd be left in the dust.
And as tge other person says, how do you define social media? Forums?
Maybe they're just really good at optimizing their time management. Or maybe they're secretly superheroes with the power of super-productivity. You never know
Monitors or anything backlit are terrible to read from for any length of time. Paper or e-ink is superior. I don't see anything wrong with lowering the contrast of text on a screen to compensate for that fact.