Spike Jonze's 'Her' Revisited: Technology as Therapy in Quarantine

Luigi Affabile revisits Spike Jonze's 2013 film 'Her' in the context of the COVID-19 quarantine, arguing that the film's portrayal of human-machine relationships takes on new meaning during isolation. The film follows Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix), a writer who composes love letters for others and falls in love with an operating system named Samantha. Set in a nostalgic, car-free Los Angeles, the story explores communication, alienation, and the mutation of time. Affabile notes that while technology was once demonized, its use during quarantine has become almost therapeutic, with social media shifting from exhibitionism to deeper engagement. He suggests that the problem is not technology itself but how it is used, and that the quarantine may reveal a more intimate, precious side of human fragility.