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As I’ve written before, the speed of technology and the hyperconnectivity of society have placed us in a “never-ending now.”Like hamsters running on a wheel, we live in an endless cycle of ephemeral content consumption — a merry-go-round that spins faster and faster but never goes anywhere.Even the virtues of information consumption have

But it isn't just about the convenience of accessing information. There's a whole mental process here that's being erased. And what that's doing to kids and how it's changing their brains... well, I can't help but wonder.

The lost art of wondering — Stacey Durnin

Children learn through play to connect, synchronize, and take turns. They enjoy attunement and need enormous quantities of it. Attunement and synchrony bond pairs, groups, and whole communities. Social media, in contrast, is mostly asynchronous and performative.

Jonathan Haidt • The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness

In the absence of time to physically and politically engage with our community the way many of us want to, the internet provides a cheap substitute: it gives us brief moments of pleasure and connection, tied up in the opportunity to constantly listen and speak. Under these circumstances, opinion stops being a first step toward something and starts

Jia Tolentino • Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion

Where the Magic Doesn’t Happen

Andy Crouch open.substack.com

Questions to Ask Before Automating a Task

What we need right now is a principled take on where the line might be in using AI—a reality check that behaviors we wouldn’t let someone do in our place before AI perhaps shouldn’t be done by an algorithm just because it is more convenient.

Here’s a simple start. Before using generative AI in your classroom... See more

Outlook

Sherry Turkle summarizes research that found just five days at a camp with no phones or internet was enough to induce major increases in the campers’ well-being and sense of connection.

Cal Newport • Digital Minimalism

This brings to mind Marshall McLuhan’s idea: the medium shapes the user.[10] If the Internet gives people the possibility to become actively involved, the individual gets drawn into this possibility and begins to behave accordingly. This remarkable quality of the Internet is beginning to be felt: what is possible becomes obligatory (we will

Andrey Miroshnichenko • Human as Media. The Emancipation of Authorship

I’ve been thinking about five intersecting problems: first, how the internet is built to distend our sense of identity; second, how it encourages us to overvalue our opinions; third, how it maximizes our sense of opposition; fourth, how it cheapens our understanding of solidarity; and, finally, how it destroys our sense of scale.