The structure of our social media feeds place us in a never-ending now. It sucks us into a temporal myopia. Like hamsters running on a wheel, we live in an endless cycle of ephemeral content consumption — a merry-go-round that spins faster and faster but never goes anywhere. Consider the time bias of major social media feeds: Snapchat 24 hours or less; Instagram stories 24 hours or less; Instagram feed three days or less; Facebook five days or less; Twitter two days or less. The year 2018 isn’t the end of history. Rather, the human story — from our Neanderthal roots, to our Palaeolithic ancestors, to the Roman Empire, to the fall of the Berlin Wall, to the here and now — is still unfolding. Stuck in the fury of social media, we’re swept up in dizzying chaos like leaves in a gale-force wind. We’re trapped in a never-ending now — blind to our place in history, engulfed in the present moment, overwhelmed by the slightest breeze of chaos. Crucially, the people I admire most live outside...
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