Frictionless – But at What Cost?
In this post, I reflect on a thought-provoking article by Rachel Botsman and explore what her ideas mean for disabled people navigating work, isolation, and connection in a post-pandemic world. During COVID, the world stayed home. Work went online, meetings went virtual, and life became more accessible for many disabled people. What had previously been dismissed as “unworkable” – remote jobs, flexible hours, online events – became normal almost overnight. In her RSA article Trust Fall , Rachel Botsman asks: “Technology has enabled our retreat into increasingly homebound lives of frictionless convenience – but at what cost?” She argues that we are social animals, wired for connection, yet increasingly buffered from one another by screens and algorithms. We avoid friction, but we also avoid each other. This resonates deeply with the experience of many disabled people. The shift to remote working was liberating—no commute, fewer access barriers, more autonomy—but it also brought...