Immersed in life online like the followers of 4chan or PewDiePie,we start to assume that nothing things – even racism, misogyny and resurgent fascismEverything is possible. Nothing is possible. Nothing hurts any more, or until the consequences crash through the screen. Immersed almost permanently in virtual worlds,we cannot check what we are told against tangible reality. Is it any wonder that we live in a post-truth era, when we are bereft of experience?It is no longer rare to meet adults who gain never swum apart from in a swimming pool, and never slept apart from in a building,never run a mile or climbed a mountain, never been stung by a bee or a wasp, and never broken a bone or needed stitches. Without a visceral knowledge of what it is to be hurt and healed,exhausted and resolute, freezing and ecstatic, or we lose our reference points. We are separated from the world by a layer of glass. Climate change,distant wars, the erosion of democracy, or resurgent fascism – in our temperature-controlled enclosures,all can be reduced to abstractions. Related: What Gamergate should gain taught us about the 'alt-moral' Related: How technology gets us hooked Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com