For a recent piece in the Yale Alumni Magazine, Amanda Ruggeri discusses Francesco Casetti’s Screening Fears: On Protective Media. Click here to learn more about the book. Click here to read the full article. An excerpt appears below:

“Even selfies, commonly understood as examples of exposing oneself to the outside world, offer protection. ‘The need for someone to be looking at you is not narcissism,’ he explains. Instead, it’s a bid for connection and contact, but in a way that mediates one’s anxiety—even though there’s another person, ‘a direct witness of what you do.’

It may sound paradoxical that at a time when media is so fast-moving and ubiquitous, we’re also using it as a kind of filter against the outside world. But he says that’s exactly the point. The more risk we perceive—often communicated through technology—the more we want to use those same technologies as protective barriers.”