Before the Internet and smart phones, there was a clear difference between what Arnold Kling calls the intimate world and the remote world:
The intimate world included the people with whom you interacted regularly — family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, the bowling team. The remote world was the world of celebrities, sports stars, politicians, criminals (am I repeating myself?). You followed them on television and in magazines.
On our smart phone, these two realms are indistinguishable. Your friends show up like celebrities, as they show off on social media. Swipe or scroll down, and now someone in the remote world is sharing a tweet with you.
Somehow, we need to adjust to the technology that puts our intimate world and our remote world on the same screen. Either we have to develop the instinct to keep these worlds separate from one another or else we have to adopt a set of cultural norms that allows us to live comfortably in a world in which the intimate world and the remote world are blended.
“The remote world was the world of celebrities, sports stars, politicians…”
That’s the promise of our digital world: everyone will be a celebrity.
“My momma told me when I was young
We were all born superstars.”
“In the future, everyone will be famous…”