The Internet has become a pretty good place to avoid isolation. But it’s not as good when it comes to avoiding loneliness.”Proximity, as city dwellers know, does not necessarily mean intimacy. Access to other people is not by itself enough to dispel the gloom of internal isolation. Loneliness can be most acute in a crowd.” The Guardian’s Olivia Laing provides a very interesting look at the future of loneliness and the search for real intimacy amid shifting identities and permanent surveillance. (Sometimes I feel like my avatar is the only one who really understands me.)

+ For many new companies, the goal is to make every purchase a social experience. As Buzzfeed’s Kayleen Schaefer explains, even a purchase as mundane as a mattress must be transformed “into a quirky, shareable adventure … It’s no longer enough for an object to be functional; it has to make you giggle, or at least smirk — at which point, these brands and their investors hope, you’ll tweet about the experience. Or Vine it. Or post your new purchase to Instagram — all of which gives an odd intimacy to things that used to be chores.” Great, now I feel lonely and alienated.