collective effervescence : a heightened emotional state resulting from simultaneous social participation. Just as singing gospel music can bring about a deeper connection to God, so too can participating in a meme or TikTok trend.

To be clear, I doubt most people are actually going to buy into the Silicon Valley ethos. It’s off-putting and weird as hell. However, we all regularly engage in less overt, micro-religious attitudes toward modern technology, creating our own explanations that parallel the AI-as-God attitude.

I don’t think this is a bad thing per se , just as I don’t think religion is an inherently bad thing either. Participating in group trends is fun—and essential to being human. It’s just important to remember exactly what we’re doing, and how our need for belonging can be manipulated by bad actors. Only then can we retain our individuality and... See more