Dawn Stonebraker

Thus, the net impact of VC to this point has been prolonging the suffering of the ad-based model by creating perverse incentives that reward bad content. Silicon Valley (and some old-guard media companies) simply fell in love with the ability to reach large audiences. What was actually being presented to those audiences was effectively an afterthought.

Why? Kupers says that human beings seem to be hardwired for paranoia so they tend to sense danger around every corner. “I think we typically figure out that we’re being paranoid, or that everything is really fine, by going out into the world and reality-testing what we’re feeling or thinking by talking with other people,” he says. But when you’re cooped up away from others, “these paranoid ideas rattle around in your head, and they just grow,” he adds.

“The first symptom we talk about is anxiety,” he says. “People in isolation have panic attacks, and they feel very anxious.” Self-esteem and mood also tend to dip, he says, and feelings of paranoia and mental instability can increase. While these symptoms are most apparent among people in extreme contexts — prisoners in solitary, but also astronauts on extended space missions — they also arise in everyday folks who spend too much time on their own.