Serendipity thrives in physical spaces. You don’t stumble into unexpected moments or connections by scrolling on your phone. You have to show up, be present, and engage with the world —Christine Rosen
You are covered with thick cloud.
Slide out the side.
Walk out like someone suddenly born into color.
Do it now. — Rumi
I’ve been in tech since the days of legacy MCIF banking systems, and it’s been a thrilling, rewarding ride. The internet’s ubiquity has given us instant knowledge, unmatched efficiency—Zoom even kept us sane during the pandemic.
It’s easy to forget that having an internet-enabled supercomputer at our fingertips 24/7 is still a relatively new phenomenon. Just ten years ago, only 55% of Americans owned a smartphone. Today, that number is over 91%.
But are there trade-offs to this kind of hyper-connectivity? Does the richness of your world expand or shrink in direct proportion to how much of your life is digitally mediated?
My guest argues that by defaulting to digital mediation—where technology filters and facilitates our interactions—we are trading away the richness of real, embodied experience. And in doing so, we risk losing—without even noticing—the very moments that make us happy and resilient.
Christine Rosen is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where she explores American history, society, culture, and the impact of technology on human behavior.
She is a columnist for Commentary magazine, a fellow at the University of Virginia’s Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, and a senior editor at The New Atlantis. Previously a distinguished visiting scholar at the Library of Congress, Christine has authored several books, including The Extinction of Experience, Esquire’s Best Book of 2024, which serves as the foundation for our discussion.
Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and many other major outlets. She holds a PhD in history from Emory University, a third-degree black belt in Aikido, and teaches martial arts where she lives in Washington, D.C.
On the show, we discuss Christine’s book The Extinction of Experience and a variety of topics, including:
- Our shared interest in Aikido and martial arts
- The thesis of her book
- How technology mediates experiences
- Impacts on basic social interactions
- The concept of “ambiguous loss”
- Serendipity and chance encounters
- How human virtue is created
- Public spaces and the decline of social awareness
- Digital voyeurism
- The physical resonance of IRL events
- Self-isolation and the “loneliness epidemic”
As we explore the trade-offs of a digitally mediated world, Rosen’s perspective offers a compelling case for reclaiming presence, attention, and, in so doing, rediscovering the richness of experience and a true sense of aliveness.
Enjoy!
Resources / Links
- This Is Water. David Foster Wallace’s Commencement Speech
- American Enterprise Institute profile
- The New Atlantis
- Book: The Extinction of Experience. Being Human in a Disembodied World
