The Duality of Technology: Connection and Isolation

In the article “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely”, Stephen Marche calls to question the impact that Facebook, other social networks, and technology as a whole, has on society. The article begins with a startling anecdote about the once beloved actor and Playboy playmate Yvette Vickers. Despite her major contributions to the film and entertainment industry, Yvette Vickers’ life still came to an isolated and lonely end; her rotting body was found by a neighbor in her home nearly a year after she died. In her final years of life, Yvette Vickers became withdrawn from her close friends and family, and turned to “distant fans who found her through fan conventions and Internet sites (Marche 2).” This story accurately exemplifies the main idea Marche is trying to convey which is that technology is making human connections more plentiful whilst also making them more shallow and superficial. Vickers may have had a mass of online communication each day, however, none of these connections were close or meaningful. No one cared enough to check up on her when she stopped responding. Marche implies that more close and meaningful connections could have potentially resulted in a more timely discovery of Vickers’ body.

Through social networking, we can instantly chat with someone across the globe. With internet access, we can access news stories from nearly every country on earth. Marche worries that this unlimited sense of connectedness may have the adverse effect in society. He states, “We live in accelerating contradiction: the more connected we become, the lonelier we are (Marche 2).” Between the unlimited amount of information available to us and the speed at which we can access it, many people feel that there is no time for meaningful connections or even no point to making