What’s real anyway?

From a Dutch News article about cybercrime:

In 2021, 47% of cyber crime cases involved persons younger than 21, up from 33% in 2018, the figures show.

Cases are also getting more serious, the prosecution office said in a written reaction. No longer a matter of ‘a lone geek in an attic room’, youngsters are getting increasingly mixed up with organised crime.

‘Worryingly, they seem to lack an awareness that what they are doing is hurting real people,’ the public prosecution department said.

It’s indeed troubling, and likely true, that many young people involved in this sorts of crimes have no concept of hurting real people.

When your entire life has been conditioned through smartphones and the internet, it’s frighteningly easy to dehumanize the other.

No, the pre-smartphone era wasn’t some golden paradise, but jeez I’m not liking the direction where all this is going.