THE FEELING OF BECOMING LESS AND LESS OF A PERSON

In Ben Lerner’s new novel, technology divides us further from one another, and ourselves.

Excerpt: "Let’s hazard an assertion: On or about June 2007, human character changed. To be more exact—because the phrase human character now feels antique—we might say instead that the human sensorium changed. By this we don’t necessarily mean a sudden and definite alteration in how we perceive the world—in the forms, sources, and amount of information we absorb, and in how we conduct our relations with parents, children, spouses, partners, mentors, friends. Yet a transition was set in motion, differentiating life before the omnipresent smartphone and life after, and dating its onset to the birth of the iPhone seems apt."