The drive to reify is a subtle shift that happens in each of us when we are overwhelmed and trying to simply manage how we distribute our limited supply of attention and energy. To survive we can’t help but turn down our internal antennae for the sake of self-preservation. We grow an emotional and mental hedge between ourselves and the world around us. The troubling outcome is that the drive to reify not only normalizes the inclination to objectify the people in our lives and the sentiments they utter in social media, but it also blunts our capacity to mobilize our care and concern for issues
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