A contribution to the schizoanalysis of indifference

Utilizing Félix Guattari’s ecosophical ideas, the media critiques of Bernard Stiegler and Franco Berardi and the neuro-philosophy of Catherine Malabou, I shall examine and describe the case of hikikomori or social recluse in Japan as a striking excrescent effect of the media’s collusion in engineering sad affects. With reference to post-Fukushima Japan, and through the prism of contemporary literature, manga, anime and film, this article tests the propensity for loneliness among youth and how the media is complicit in crushing subjectivity through the veneer of ‘connection’.