Ian's Blog

We live in an era where conversations are no longer conversations. They are battles. A sentence can ruin a career. A misstep can erase a lifetime of effort. A disagreement can instantly brand you an enemy. The death of nuance—our ability to sit with complexity, tolerate disagreement, and engage with ideas that challenge us—is one of the defining crises of modern culture. And it is fueled not only by social media but also by political polarization, generational divides, and a collective anxiety that demands certainty in a world that is anything but certain. The result? Outrage culture. Cancel culture. Echo chambers. The replacement of thoughtful dialogue with soundbites designed for applause or destruction. But beneath the noise lies something far more dangerous: when society stops making room for nuance, it stops making room for progress. Outrage as the New Currency The digital world rewards outrage. On platforms like Twitter/X, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube, the most extreme conten...

  An Empire Without Flags For centuries, empires conquered land, extracted resources, and governed people with flags and forts. In the twenty-first century, colonization wears a different uniform: code, contracts, and cloud servers . The platforms that mediate everyday life—Google, Meta, TikTok, Apple, Amazon, and their sprawling ecosystems—do not merely host our communications and commerce. They own the rails on which speech, trade, and culture now move. They extract data as oil, sell attention as currency, and govern behavior through algorithms that are inscrutable to most of the people they affect. Their power is neither accidental nor benign. It is the product of deliberate architecture: walled gardens, lock-in, surveillance advertising, frictionless capture of behaviors, and the privatization of public spheres. I argue that we are witnessing a new phase of digital colonization —particularly acute in the Global South—where platforms function as de facto sovereigns. They set ...

For much of human history, the “diseases of civilization” were physical: plague, tuberculosis, cancer, and later, cardiovascular disease. Today, however, the illness most quietly shaping lives is not strictly biological but psychological—anxiety. Once dismissed as a personal quirk or a minor affliction, anxiety has become a defining condition of the 21st century. It stretches across borders, cutting through age, gender, and class, manifesting in schoolchildren, employees, political leaders, and even entire societies. Unlike infectious outbreaks, it is not spread by microbes but by systems: the pressures of work, the omnipresence of technology, widening inequality, and the constant hum of uncertainty. Anxiety, therefore, is not merely a personal failing or chemical imbalance. It is structural and political—a product of global systems that keep individuals in a permanent state of restlessness and fear. Understanding anxiety as a collective condition, rather than a solitary burden, refra...

 Philanthropy has always been draped in the language of virtue. When billionaires donate fortunes to schools, fund hospitals, or launch foundations, society often rushes to applaud their generosity. The media frames them as modern-day saints, politicians court their influence, and ordinary citizens are told to be grateful for their largesse. Yet beneath the polished surface of charitable giving lies a more unsettling truth: philanthropy has become less about compassion and more about power. What was once a mechanism of solidarity and care has been commodified—turned into an instrument of influence, image management, and control. Instead of dismantling inequality, much of modern philanthropy cements it. Instead of redistributing power, it entrenches it in the hands of a wealthy elite. Here, I examine how philanthropy has been transformed into a global system of reputational laundering, corporate soft power, and political leverage. I eview how the act of giving is entangled with exp...

When the internet first became widely accessible, it was heralded as a tool of freedom. Cyber-optimists imagined a borderless space where citizens could speak truth to power, mobilize against injustice, and expand democracy without the constraints of geography. Two decades later, this utopian vision has collided with a stark reality: governments have adapted to the digital age not by losing control but by finding new ways to exert it. Around the globe, cyberspace has become a new frontline of political struggle . Surveillance technologies, internet shutdowns, and state-sponsored disinformation campaigns are no longer exceptions; they are central tools in the arsenal of modern governance. Where once authoritarian regimes relied on physical force to stifle dissent, today they can manipulate digital infrastructures to achieve the same ends — quietly, efficiently, and often invisibly. Kenya, often lauded as a regional tech hub and the “Silicon Savannah,” is not immune. In fact, the curre...

When the internet was first popularized, it was sold as a tool of liberation: a boundless space where knowledge would be democratized, voices amplified, and communities forged across distance. Two decades later, that dream has mutated into something far darker. Social media — once hailed as the great connector — has become a labyrinth of addiction, engineered not by accident but by design. Behind the glossy interfaces and cheerful notifications lies an industry fine-tuned to manipulate human psychology, monetize attention, and rewire societies. This is not simply about people spending too much time on their phones. It is about how platforms built on algorithms and behavioral science have colonized our attention, exploited our vulnerabilities, and reshaped the foundations of mental health, relationships, and even democracy itself. In short: we are not merely users of social media; we are subjects of one of the largest psychological experiments in human history. The Attention Economy: ...

In a world where billions are online at any given moment, where video calls can bridge oceans, and where messages can travel faster than thought, loneliness should, in theory, be a relic of the past. Yet paradoxically, we are in the grip of what researchers and health experts now call a global epidemic of loneliness. Across continents, cultures, and age groups, more people than ever report feeling isolated, disconnected, and unseen. This paradox—the age of infinite connectivity breeding an era of profound disconnection—demands serious reflection. The issue is no longer confined to individuals’ private struggles; it is a collective social and public health crisis with wide-ranging consequences. The Illusion of Connection in a Digital Age Technology has revolutionized how humans interact, but in doing so, it has also reshaped the very fabric of human connection. Social media promised community and togetherness, but too often delivers a curated illusion of connection. A “like,” a fleeti...