Blurs

The Hidden Journey of Information From Reality to Your Phone There was a time when war was something most people encountered through newspapers, radio broadcasts or the evening news. Today, it can arrive in our homes before we have even got out of bed. A phone vibrates on the bedside table. A notification appears. A video shows a missile strike thousands of miles away. Another shows a collapsed building. Another reports a bombing, a natural disaster, a mass shooting, a famine or a humanitarian crisis. Within minutes, we can move from a mental photograph of breakfast to images of death, destruction and despair. And then, almost immediately, back to entertainment, advertising and social media. The extraordinary and catastrophic has now become part of the ordinary. A World of Permanent Crisis Modern technology has fundamentally changed our relationship with catastrophic events.  A war happening on another continent is no longer simply reported to us. We can watch it unfold. Smartphone...