Washington, D.C
Being human in a digitally disembodied world – Washington Examiner
Clubbing on a Monday night — that’s the image that came into my mind as I was reading the great new book by Christine Rosen, The Extinction of Experience: Being Human in a Disembodied World. Rosen is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a columnist for Commentary magazine. She is one of America’s best writers and thinkers.
The Extinction of Experience explores the way the digital revolution and the rise of the internet, the smartphone, and AI have altered our lives. Rosen appreciates the miracles of modern technology, which are useful and “fun.” She defines “technology” as “computers, smartphones, smart speakers, wearable sensors, and, in our likely future, implantable objects, as well as software, algorithms, etc.”
However, the bigger picture is that our gadgets have become obstacles to the spiritual, mental, and psychological flourishing of human beings.
“Many of our current technologies seem to view people as the problem to which devices and platforms and algorithms provide a necessary solution,” Rosen writes. “If earlier technologies were an extension of our senses, today’s technologies train us to mistrust our own senses and rely instead on technology.”
The results of this are bad, as we can no longer tolerate boredom or contemplation. We can’t experience a concert, conversation, or romantic pleasure without digital mediation.
“The extinction of fundamental human experiences creates a world where our sense of shared reality and purpose is further frayed, and where a growing distrust of human judgment will further polarize our culture and politics,” she writes. “Technological change of the sort we have experienced in the last 20 years has not ushered in either greater social stability or moral evolution. In fact, many of our sophisticated technological inventions and platforms have been engineered to bring out the worst of human nature.”
The contrast to this is the image that came into my mind as I was reading her book: dancing in a club on a Monday night in the pre-digital world. When I was in my 20s, back in the 1980s and before the digital revolution, I would sometimes go out clubbing and bar-hopping on weeknights. I worked at a restaurant in Georgetown in Washington, D.C., and for many of us in that business, our weekends were Mondays and Tuesdays.
On Monday, I would go out and hit a few favorite night spots. The crowds were small and the city quiet. You could have time with bartenders and DJs you knew to share some conversation. It was contemplative, friendly, sometimes even boring. You’d think about your life, your loves, your goals. You would talk to God. You’d dance with someone you had just met, and actually see the smile on their face. It was like an urban nightlife version of Huck Finn and Jim drifting down the Mississippi River.
That experience came to me while reading The Extinction of Experience because it touched on so many things that Rosen argues are necessary for human flourishing.
She writes, “Certain types of experience — some rooted deeply in our evolutionary history, such as face-to-face interaction and various forms of pleasure-seeking; others more recent and reflective of cultural norms, such as patience and our sense of public space and place — are fading from our lives. Many of these experiences are what, historically, have helped us form and nurture a shared reality as human beings. Mediating technologies have been a significant force behind these changes.”
Rosen devotes the entire first chapter of her book to the importance of the human face. For thousands of years, we have used our subtle and complex reading of the human face to make friends and discover a spouse, to detect danger, to lift our spirits, to laugh and cry. That primal ability is being lost as faces are now glued to cellphones. Just as young people are forgetting how to write cursive, they are losing the ability to read the human face.
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I can still remember in detail the faces of all the bartenders, DJs, and a few girls I danced with 40 years ago. Today’s young digital addicts can’t remember who they met an hour ago. As Rosen notes, we marvel at “the rarity of finding someone in public space who is not immersed in a smartphone.” We suffer from a “waning ability to experience human pleasure without mediation.”
Spending a quiet Monday night in the clubs of Washington, D.C., all those decades ago gave me something I remember to this day. It gave me a fully human experience.
Mark Judge is an award-winning journalist and the author of The Devil’s Triangle: Mark Judge vs. the New American Stasi. He is also the author of God and Man at Georgetown Prep, Damn Senators, and A Tremor of Bliss.
Washington, D.C
The Work Behind the Welcome: NPS Tradespeople Restore Dupont Circle, Making D.C. Safer and More Beautiful (U.S. National Park Service)
NPS / Kelsey Graczyk
The hands behind the place
This work took more than plans. It took craftsmen and craftswomen.
NPS carpenters, masons, maintenance workers, preservation specialists, engineers and landscape architects worked together to renew the circle from the ground up. Crews installed about 10,000 feet of wood slats, cut and placed dowels, sanded rough surfaces, repaired worn concrete legs and painted benches to withstand weather and daily use.
Contractors also repaired fountain pipes and restored stone and marble features, returning moving water to the heart of the circle.
“I used to write project plans for this kind of work,” retired NPS Asset Manager Fred Francis said. “Now I’m out here helping do it. I’m working with a great group of people who are experts in their fields.”
Homelessness in the D.C. region ticked up slightly from 2025 to 2026, according to a new report from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.
Homelessness in the D.C. region ticked up slightly from 2025 to 2026, according to a new report from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.
Christine Hong, chair of the council’s Homeless Services Committee and chief of services to End and Prevent Homelessness with the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services, presented the findings at the council’s Wednesday meeting.
The report centers on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s mandated point-in-time count of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness on a single night in January.
“This year, the count was conducted on Feb. 4. We had to postpone it one week due to the extreme cold and winter weather event that we experienced the week prior,” Hong said. “Although it’s an imperfect measure, it provides an important regional snapshot of homelessness on a single night.”
The D.C. region reported 9,790 total people experiencing homelessness, an increase of 131 people or about 1% from 2025. The year-over-year regional change was modest. This count is closer in line to the 2019 number, before the pandemic.
“The regional story is that homelessness fell during the pandemic era, a period when expanded federal resources and emergency protections were in place, and then increased after those temporary supports ended,” Hong said. “The main takeaway is that regional homelessness is no longer increasing at the pace seen in 2023 and 2024, and is in line with the years immediately preceding the pandemic.”
Results varied by jurisdiction.
D.C. had the largest numerical increase, with 225 additional people counted. Prince George’s County, Maryland, had 175 additional people counted, a 29% increase. Montgomery County saw the largest decrease, down by 390 people or 26%. Hong pointed to the county’s investment in short-term housing.
“Montgomery County also spent a great deal to expand emergency shelter for families, because we are committed to ensuring no family with children would sleep outside even one night,” she said.
The count also included detailed information on race, veterans and household types.
“The broader evidence is clear, and is referenced in the report, that housing costs and the cost of living are major drivers of homelessness risk, especially for families with low income,” Hong said. “In practical terms, this means family homelessness is closely tied to whether low-income families can find and maintain housing.”
Read the full report here.
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WASHINGTON – The D.C. police lieutenant arrested in a Chris Hansen sting operation is due in court Wednesday.
Lt. Matthew Mahl is accused of soliciting sex with a minor. FOX 5’s Melanie Alnwick reports that Mahl was charged with felony solicitation of a minor. A status hearing Wednesday morning suggests the case could be paused, not prosecuted or dismissed, though the reason remains unclear.
DC police lieutenant arrested in child exploitation investigation tied to Chris Hansen sting
Mahl was one of several people arrested in April as part of an online sting for Hansen’s show “Takedown,” which he describes as a predator investigative series. Hansen’s team, working with members of the Harford County Sheriff’s Office, set up a “sting house” where targets were lured to an address believing they were meeting a juvenile for sex.
Mahl did not enter the sting house. Instead, he was taken out of his vehicle on the street and arrested. He did not answer questions during the post‑arrest interview.
Hansen’s earlier program, “To Catch a Predator,” drew controversy over its tactics, which critics said ruined lives and careers before cases reached court. Others praised the shows for removing alleged child predators from the streets.
Mahl is on administrative leave and has had his police powers revoked. The D.C. police department is conducting its own internal investigation.
The Source: This article was written using information from the Metropolitan Police Department, the Harford County Sheriff’s Office and and previous FOX 5 reporting.
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