Letter from the Editor

I’m a Computer Beep Boop Beep Boop

Screens are no longer a novelty — they are life itself

The author in his new natural state. Photo: Claire Cifelli

Here’s my routine these days: I wake up at about 7:30 a.m., immediately pick up my phone, open Slack, respond to anything that needs my attention, do the same on Gmail, maybe snooze for another half-hour or so with my phone resting on my chest in case I get “pinged,” wake up again, look at Slack and Gmail again, scroll through Twitter, drag myself out of bed, make coffee, maybe brush my teeth, sit down in front of my three monitors, jump in and out of Zoom calls and Google Meets for eight hours, quickly respond to messages or edit some articles in between, feel a slight relief when the official “workday” ends, stay at my computer for another hour or two to actually accomplish the things on my to-do list, leave my desk, spend the rest of the night staring at other screens with my partner, go to bed, stare at a screen in bed, fall asleep with the screen in my hand, get nudged by my partner to remove the screen from my hand, turn off the light, go to sleep, repeat.

My phone and computer never stop burping notifications, my back is in some kind of mid-spasm constantly, and I feel like the whites of my eyes are themselves transforming into OLED panels. My body now exists to type or speak things into gadgets with…