Once upon a time, Sara Herschander writes, going through life meant interacting with the world around you — turning a fiddly key in a lock, scratching out notes on paper, dialing a phone number on an actual keypad. But increasingly, all of those tasks — and many others — feel the same: You just tap at a screen. In this month’s Highlight cover story, Sara explains how we’re losing touch with our sense of, well, touch — plus why young children are suffering the worst effects of all that screen time, and whether a return to a more tactile world is imminent. Also in this issue: Good news about America’s birthday. How organ donation is complicating the line between dead and dying. The rise of extremely convincing AI thirst traps. And the great American quest for the great American novel.
The US is better off than it was in 1976. So why does it feel worse?
By Bryan Walsh
Should you keep practicing a religion even if you don’t believe?
By Shayla Love
The organ donation boom complicating the boundary between life and death
By Pratik Pawar
Coming June 30
Why gay guys are falling for AI thirst traps
By Alex Abad-Santos
Coming June 30
America’s housing was built for a world we no longer live in
By Marina Bolotnikova
Coming July 1
5 books that define America — for better and for worse
By Constance Grady
Coming July 1
What we lost when everything became a screen
By Sara Herschander
Coming July 2
