My new book, Superbloom, won’t be out for a few more weeks (January 28), but I’m pleased to share a preview here at New Cartographies. This excerpt comes from the seventh chapter, “The Dislocated I.” It opens the third and final section of the book, where I shift from examining how digital media has reshaped personal relations and social dynamics to looking at the fate of the self in a world where everything is mediated.

It happened quickly. Twenty-five years ago, at th...