In ways we have yet to fully grasp, the ideology of the Internet rules our era.  Illustration by Till Lauer Surfing has always been a purportedly laid-back hobby, underpinned by aggression. But the staff writer Jay Caspian Kang argues that the confrontational aspects of the sport have intensified recently, as more people flock to the same spots, showing up “belligerent and misinformed” when they get there. That situation probably sounds familiar, even if you’ve never stepped foot near a surfboard. In the début of his new column, Fault Lines, which will run each Friday, Kang argues that what has happened to surfing is happening everywhere around us—a pitched hostility at moments both trivial and important. The common factor, he suggests, is the way in which the Internet has “placed a filter of unreality between us,” changing not only how we live but how we speak and think. “As even more of our lives take place within the distortions of online life,” Kang asks, “how much longer will there be a widely agreed-upon status quo to defend?” Support The New Yorker’s award-winning journalism. Subscribe today » | 
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