Brad Barrish

A lot of people have given up taking a chance on other people: that they might want to listen, that they might want to talk. But they have also given up taking a chance on themselves: that they might be able to navigate a conversation with someone new, cope with knockbacks and steer a path through any misunderstandings.

The ways our minds form meaning and connections is heavily shaped by our emotional state, but this can quickly become problematic.

When Times New Roman appears in a book, document, or advertisement, it connotes apathy. It says, “I submitted to the typeface of least resistance.” Times New Roman isn’t a typeface choice so much as the absence of a typeface choice, like the blackness of deep space isn’t a color. To look at Times New Roman is to gaze into the void.

We have let school shootings in America persist long enough that we have created a culture where kids grow up seeing them as a path towards fame and glory. Another consequence of how thoroughly the internet has flattened pop culture, politics, and real life violence. All of it now is just another meme you can participate in to go viral.