How Coronavirus Is Cutting Connections

As a society, we are obviously becoming increasingly more connected. Most of the time, we don’t realize the fragility caused by our interdependence.

We take our connections among and between people, physical artifacts and digital artifacts for granted and seem them as benign as the sun rising in the East and setting in the West.

Until COVID-19 emerged in late 2019, all of our discussion about connectedness was framed almost entirely on social networks, networks more generally and, of course, network effects (i.e., the Big Tech companies — that we voluntarily use — that are ruining (or is that running?) our lives and ruining society).

The emergent properties of our global 21st century society have been primarily related to digital: cyber risks; social media that enable bullying, spreading misinformation and amplifying outrage; and “trial by Twitter.”

But a global pathogen has supplanted our discussion about emergent digital issues.