“Troubled by nervous energy and stress since he was young, an intermittent insomniac” who had “difficulty filtering noise and distractions in public spaces” and had “increasingly relied on his phone and computer,” British artist Sam Winston decided to go dark for a while. Among the difficulties he had to overcome? Hallucinations of Donald Trump.
This isn’t just an alarming anecdote. “We know,” writes Adam Garfinkle, “that prolonged and repetitive exposure to digital devices changes the way we think and behave in part because it changes us physically. The brain adapts to its environment.”
Exhibit A: It turns out most people can’t tell the difference between a Shakespeare sonnet and AI-generated gobbledygook. Forget COVID-19. We’re getting too dumb to exist anyway.
So, you know, happy weekend.
