Boredom feels like a problem waiting to be solved. We complain about it, avoid it, and increasingly design our lives around escaping it. A quiet moment appears and we instinctively reach for something to fill it. A phone, a video, a conversation, a notification. Modern life offers countless ways to ensure that we are rarely …
Not long ago, people mostly bought things because they needed them. A coat kept you warm. A chair gave you somewhere to sit. A notebook held your thoughts. Of course, objects have always carried meanings beyond their practical purpose, but those meanings usually remained in the background. Today something feels different. Increasingly, products are being …
There is a peculiar feeling that belongs almost exclusively to modern cities. You can spend an entire day surrounded by human beings and never once feel connected to any of them. The elevator arrives. Someone glances at their phone. The train is crowded. Hundreds of faces pass within arm’s reach. Coffee is bought from a …
A strange contradiction sits at the centre of modern life. Most people today communicate with more human beings in a single week than their grandparents might have encountered in a month. We send messages across continents. We join group chats with hundreds of people. We can video call relatives thousands of kilometres away. We can …
