Connecting

Abstract

It is a truism that we live in a world that is highly connected. A hundred years ago, your greatgrandmother’s “social network” might have comprised a few dozen friends and acquaintances, all of whom lived in the same community, together perhaps with a few distant family members with whom communication was by letter: slow and not always reliable. Now, your friend group on Facebook probably has hundreds of members and may already be spread across several continents. What difference has this made to the world? Has it enriched our experience by opening us to a previously unheard-of range of perspectives, or has it made our lives shallow at the same rate as it has made them broad?