Humanity has become a prisoner of social networking and cannot free itself. No one hides the fact that social networks are specifically designed to cause addiction. Dutch media theorist Geert Lovink, in the collection “Critical Theory of the Internet,” translated into Russian by Dmitry Lebedev and Peter Torkanovsky as part of the joint publishing program of Ad Marginem and the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, problematizes both the everyday cultural practices of the era of social networks and the state of democracy and modern progressive movements. N+1 invites its readers to read an excerpt from the article “Distraction and Its Disappointments,” where Lovink explains why despondency reigns among critics of Internet platforms and how social media transforms a person’s inner world and habits.