Editor’s note: This story is an edition of Link Rot , a column by Shanti Escalante-De Mattei that explores the intersections of art, technology, and the internet. The column will appear every other Monday.

A classic illustration of a world that has fallen to technology first appeared on Facebook in the 2010s and has been circulating online ever since. You likely know it: Rows of bent heads gazing at their phone screens; each face replaced by a ray of light sucked towards the screen. By 2026, the illustration has become boomer meme par excellence, but it captures the familiar feeling that our relationship with technology is one-sided, hypnotic, and vampiric. AI-induced existential panic has only heightened this feeling, leading to a keen desire to set some boundaries with our devices.

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