According to the philosopher Martin Heidegger, the act of being present with and for others is not only archaic, it is originary. Being-with-others is a world-disclosive act: it opens worlds and keeps them open. Heidegger died before the advent of the internet and mobile phones. Yet his life’s work, from his celebrated study of human existence, in Being and Time (1927), to his critique of modern technology as ‘enframing’ in ‘The Question Concerning Technology’ (1954), anticipates the digital age and offers some important guidelines for negotiating life in the smartphone era.

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