My Dear Hemlock

by Tilly Dillehay

This sort of girl will always attempt to teach something before she has finished learning it, will always try to hold others to a standard that she herself is going to go slack on in about a month, and will be perfectly unaware of her own hypocrisy. Encourage this sidelong glance, and you’ll produce

The humor of it is that none of these people think of themselves as vain. If it was a simple glass mirror, they couldn’t be brought to spend so much time looking into it. It would be too boring, not to mention embarrassing to be seen doing this in public. But it’s not a simple glass mirror. It’s a mirror of the soul; it feeds them what they love. It shows them what they love to read—opinions that match theirs. It shows them what they love to shop for—possessions that reflect their tastes in housewares, clothing, and books. It shows them what their friends think of them, in quantifiable measurements of activity (or ghastly silence!).

(the black/glass mirror = smartphone)

While online, the humans experience an existence that has much in common with our own. They become avatars of themselves, wandering around in an aphysical world, occasionally bumping into avatars of other people to enjoy muted versions of fellowship, discussion, or conflict. They whirl through the ether, stupefied and mostly unguarded. Put simply, the internet disembodies and removes them from Time.

Also, exacerbate the sufferer’s typical belief that their suffering will last forever. Any human being who suffers physically is vulnerable to this message. “You are hurting now—and you will always hurt in this way.” “This thing is difficult to do now; you will have to keep doing it the same way forever.”