Barbarism and social media

Philosophers have not entirely caught up with social media. To be sure, many philosophers use it, but this is not the same thing as philosophizing about it. This is lamentable, since the ubiquity of social media is one of the most obvious changes to society in the last twenty years. While some philosophers of technology have addressed it (George Myerson and Justin E.H. Smith come to mind), much of this discussion is about social media ethics. Although this is important, it is superficial compared to the sort of discussion we need. For if the French philosopher Michel Henry (1922–2002) is right, the advent of social media further exacerbates the alienation of modern people from their own inner lives, with profound social and spiritual consequences.