While some of us can still feel occasional pangs of guilt for “bingeing” too much TV or losing track of time aimlessly scrolling through our social media feeds, the point is that this kind of rhythm does not stand out as strange in our modern world. We can tinker around the edges, but the life bordered on all sides by the internet is neither rare nor surprising in our era. From work to dating, from movies to music, from friendship to even church—the screen is mediating much of our modern life. If the web is the water we live in, expressive individualism is the chlorine that permeates it.
