For one thing, the internet has taken the reward circuitry meant for social conditioning and has begun to replace it with parasocial conditioning; our reward feedback loops increasingly run through interactions with people we don’t know and may never meet, who have very little information about us or investment in our lives and wellbeing.... See more

As the internet grows in size, we feel like we’re surrounded by people and lonely at the same time. It feels increasingly harder to feel safe expressing ourselves authentically in the predominant gathering spaces. We feel like we’re either invisible or presenting at an auditorium. Things have to be more explicit, black-and-white in the new world.... See more