THE FUSE

You’re at it again—doomscrolling your way through breakfast. You idly pluck at your plate of scrambled eggs as one apocalyptic tableau after another slides down the screen of your phone. And the vertical parade of calamity continues unabated until your attention snags on the horrifying image of some recent act of violence—the outrage du jour—and try as you might, you simply cannot look away. As your coffee cools and your eggs turn to yellow gelatin, you realize that you’ve lost yet another round in the ongoing battle with morbid curiosity.