When I catch myself wanting to cheer the students who are anguished by connection and terrified of its loss, I consider the meaning of “no exit” as recounted in a personal recollection of the social psychologist Stanley Milgram regarding an experiment that demonstrated “the power of immediate circumstances on feelings and behavior.” … Milgram's class was studying the force with which social norms control behavior. He had the idea of examining the real-life phenomenon by having his students approach a person on the subway and, without providing any justification, simply look the person in the eye and ask for his or her seat. One afternoon, Milgram himself boarded the subway ready to make his contribution. Despite his years of observing and theorizing disturbing patterns of human behavior, it turned out that he was unprepared for his own moment of social confrontation. Assuming that it would be an "easy" caper, Milgram approached a passenger and was about to utter the "magical phrase" when "the words seemed lodged in my trachea and would simply not emerge. I stood there frozen, then retreated... I was overwhelmed by paralyzing inhibition." The psychologist eventually hectored himself into trying again. He recounts what occurred when he finally approached a passenger and "choked out" his request: "Excuse me, sir, may I have your seat?"

Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Cap…, loc. 1507