"The real tragedy in all of this is that we've made real life so expensive and so socially dangerous that a simulation feels like a better deal I was on the train into town the other morning, sitting in a carriage packed with people and yet so quiet it could have passed for a church. Every pair of eyes fixed on a screen. Nobody made eye contact. Nobody spoke. Then you open your phone and it's all hand-wringing over Grok, OnlyFans and AI "girlfriends"."
"I was on the train into town the other morning, sitting in a carriage packed with people and yet so quiet it could have passed for a church. Every pair of eyes fixed on a screen. Nobody made eye contact. Nobody spoke."
A packed commuter carriage sits utterly quiet, with each passenger absorbed by a personal screen and avoiding eye contact or conversation. Rising economic costs and increasing social risks make in-person life more fraught and less accessible for many people. Simulated experiences, paid digital companionship, and AI-driven relationships offer cheaper, lower-risk alternatives to traditional social connection. Public attention often concentrates on platforms and technologies such as Grok, OnlyFans, and AI “girlfriends,” reflecting anxiety and moral scrutiny around mediated intimacy. The resulting dynamic favors isolation, mediated connection, and technological substitutes for spontaneous human contact.
Read at Independent
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