Alan Levinovitz

So that's one thing I've learned.

So I need to think harder about how to talk about things in a way that doesn't allow people or myself to fall back into the very categories that I'm trying to transcend.

That's one thing I've learned.

The other thing I've learned is

from writing this piece is that the inner, I mean, this may sound like an idiot.

It's like, really Alan, you didn't know this?

But my Lord, the internet and social media is a place that allows people

to find groups of other people who are exactly like them and are super upset about the exact same things and agree with them on everything.

And it's really unhealthy, I think, intellectually.

I said to someone, and I think this is true, the internet is like, it allows you to create a bunch of other people who function like a mirror.

And you look at this mirror and you think that what you're looking at is a window onto the world.

But a mirror is not a window onto the world.

And the internet tricks us into thinking that these screens are windows onto the world when in fact we're just looking at ourselves.

And that's tremendously dangerous.

In religious terms, that's a form of idolatry.

You begin to worship your own image.

in a way that's deeply problematic, but it's not your fault because what you're being told is that the screen through which you're getting your information is actually providing you with a view of the world itself.

And that's really dangerous as well.

So a lot of people are looking into their screens and thinking these are windows.

And in fact, they are mirrors.