From virus to vaccine, 2020 has been a year on pause. From the detection of the first cases of covid-19 in Wuhan to the announcement of the efficacy of vaccines, we have lived a period of virtual life, locked up in domesticity and our contact with others blurred by masks, distance, and screens. If we have ever wondered what life would be like in a metaverse, we have never been closer as in this period of alternate reality. Media hyperconnectivity and the bulimic consumption of experiences had brought on the FOMO syndrome (fear of missing out), and the pandemic has replaced this anxiety with another one, FOGO (fear of going out), which extends lockdown with self-isolation. But we are social beings, and the absence of physical contact is untenable: we cannot imagine a world of hikikomoris, so this year must indeed be a pause, and virtual life a reversible dystopia...
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