From “No Sense of Place” to “No Sense of the World”: Screen‐Centered Senses and the Problem of Worldlessness

Abstract Drawing on Heidegger and postphenomenology, this article examines how digital screens reshape human senses of place and world. Screens act as “focal devices” that structure daily perception, behavior, and lifestyle by capturing attention. Extending Meyrowitz, the article argues that screens induce not only placelessness but also worldlessness. The analysis distinguishes screen‐mediated from screen‐centered sense, where the latter traps perception within a closed loop, ultimately producing worldlessness. The tragic case of a young girl named Huang Yuanxin is analyzed to demonstrate the multidimensional manifestations of placelessness and worldlessness. Finally, invoking Heidegger and Arendt, the article demonstrates that screen‐induced worldlessness primarily erodes common sensibility ( sensus communis ). This erosion obscures and dissolves the public sphere, which relies on shared experience and discourse, as pervasive screens fragment it into isolated private realms.