Many people seem to be mesmerized by small, portable screens and can’t take their eyes from them for long. Yesterday, in less than a two-block radius from where I live, I saw three bodies, still breathing, but pretty obvious ODs. Out cold, each missing a shoe, lying in the street.

It may be a stretch to see both phenomena as zombification, but I think they express similarities under that description. The endless scrolling is a type of dependence and escape from what’s in front of you.

Most would say passing out from fentanyl is a bit more dire a dependency and escape, but a shared phenomenon nonetheless, no? It is striking how very common a response that readily cops to smartphone/social media addiction as just that. For example, “I know it doesn’t really satisfy, but I’m addicted.”

Heard that so often. “I should quit, but I’m very unlikely to do so.”

It’s more and more a dark, unappealing, cold, declining reality out there. Who really wants to straight-up face it? A late spring article in The Atlantic was called “The New Dark Age” about Donald Trump’s war on knowledge itself. True enough, but the reality is far deeper and scarier.

Tech addiction or dope. Why are these unholy choices so popular? Both are offered detox efforts that aren’t effective.

The emptiness of society pulls each of us to be zombies or addicts of one sort or another.

John Zerzan is a local anarchist writer whose books include Elements of Refusal and Future Primitive. You can listen live to his “AnarchyRadio” at 7 pm Tuesdays on KWVA 88.1 FM or via audio streaming. He once had a correspondence with the Unabomber.