Fixing What the Internet Broke

MAYBE YOU FIRST saw it while sitting in the waiting room of the doctor’s office — a Fox News banner update across the bottom of the screen. Or perhaps you saw the hashtag on X or Threads. Maybe you’re following the story as internet sleuths exchange theories on Reddit. Here’s what you know: There’s an SUV making its way from California to Washington, D.C., driven by a man and a woman in their 20s. They’re transporting some sort of nuclear device, and they plan to blow up the president. And, for some reason, law enforcement isn’t taking this very seriously.

It’s the story of the moment. Even though nobody has any real facts. Everyone just knows we’re collectively watching a disaster unfold.

Such is the setup for Jason Pargin’s I’m Starting to Worry About this Black Box of Doom, a parable of the dangers of the information age. Pargin’s witty, incisive novel illustrates how social media has eroded our ability to trust each other.

Moreover, Black Box of Doom is a prophetic invitation to a church that has fallen victim to technologies that exploit and divide us. Christians are especially susceptible to fake news in the age of social media. (A 2019 report from MIT, for instance, found that 19 of the 20 top Christian Facebook pages were operated by Russian troll farms.) This is a painful fact for those of us who claim to follow the One who is the “truth and the life.”

Though Black Box of Doom doesn’t feature any especially religious characters, Pargin introduces us to a cast who represent a wide swath of beliefs: There’s a retired FBI agent, social justice warriors, neo-Nazis, and a hulking formerly incarcerated man. But the biggest lessons on cultivating authentic community come from the two characters inside the SUV. Ether, a mysterious young woman, meets Abbott, who earns money livestreaming himself eating junk food, outside of a Circle K in California. She offers him $200,000 to transport her and a black box across the country. But to get the money, he can’t open the box, ask her any questions about it, or tell anyone about the trip.

On the road, the pair stumbles into a debate about cancel culture. Abbott insists that online, men are in more danger than women. Ether argues that women are in more danger everywhere, including on the internet. They reach a conversational impasse, and Ether pleads with Abbott:

“If I listen to you, honestly listen, without judgment, can you do the same for me? ... I think instead of communicating, you’re trying to shape your words into weapons to deal maximum damage to your “enemy,” which you have now decided is me. And I would only ask: Is this making you happy? ... Do you really want to do this next thirteen hundred miles like this, both of us sick with tension?”

Black Box of Doom pushes readers to extend good faith to those we see as our enemies, to love them even during — maybe especially during — our daily interactions. Which is no small task, given the ways that, as Pargin illustrates, the internet has made connection and understanding more difficult. Still, he offers a shockingly optimistic vision of our capacity to overcome our divisions — and our algorithms too.