Mena 1

Yesica S. Mena

Instructor Kat King

English 1A

November 4, 2018

Short Essay 5 “The Loneliness of the Interconnected” by Charles Seife

In the essay “The Loneliness of the Interconnected”, the author Charles Seife argues

about how the media and internet could connect us to a vast group of people and at the same time

it can isolate us from the rest of the world. The author explains that information should help us to

delineate new thoughts, to change our perceptions, and in some ways, the information helps us to

develop our core ideas which are responsible for how we perceive the world and our opinions

about it. Seife states that these core ideas are rooted in our personalities, and when we are in a

situation where these opinions are confronted with information or evidence that disqualify them,

we look for a mechanism to protect ourselves from a mental crisis. To support his argument, the

author describes the example of members of a cult in the 1950s whose share such deeply believes

in their ideas that were able to do personal sacrifices in the name of those prophecies. But when

this belief was debunked by the facts, instead of change their minds, they clung so strongly to

those ideas that they were able to recruit new members and grow the cult. Seife names this

mechanism to maintain a mental sanity “cognitive dissonance” (291). This process includes two

paths the individual has to choose from, either change the idea or reject it to fit the reality or

double down in their belief to compensate the undeniable facts. This last option could be done

just increasing the network of people who share the same belief conforming then a group where

they find support and retro-feed to their conviction. The author explains that, in this effort, the
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Internet is playing a very important role these days because it facilitates the formation of groups

around a belief, in which individuals find support in other people with the same mind set, and

where that belief can resist reality and grow assuming that any other evidence that disqualifies

that "truth" is simply not correct. Seife states that the network it is a very effective vehicle to

spread our message, whatever it may be, and with this ability, the problem of finding an audience

that fits our rhetoric is solved because our beliefs can reach millions of people with just one

click. The author explains that spreading the message so quickly and be able to organize those

orders of “believers” ends up isolating them from other groups that can challenge the belief in

common, to such an extent that leads them towards extremism. Seife criticizes that the media

contributes to the radicalization of the message and the extremism of the people because they

offer information that is increasingly biased and directed to a specific group, thus depriving

objectivity to the report. The author argues that isolation and extremism make people extremely

egocentric beings and that this can be dangerous for other people who do not share their beliefs.

Seife concludes by summarizing how the interconnection of the media allows quick access to all

kinds of ideas, and that paradoxically this fast connection ends up isolating and radicalizing these

people, turning them into a danger for other groups that do not share their beliefs.

I agree with the argument made by Charles Seife in the essay “The Loneliness of the

Interconnected” when he expresses the danger represented by the isolation and radicalization of

groups of people who believe in a particular idea. The example of the apocalyptic cult that grew

stronger after the prophecies made by its foundress wasn’t fulfilled is one that can be compared

to the current situation. The last elections of 2016 were a clear example of how radicalized

people react when an idea with which they identify reaches them. The message conveyed during

the presidential campaign was harshly criticized for being highly inflammatory; however, the
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radical groups that identified with him, increased their support for the candidate despite the

criticism, and their beliefs, however extreme, were spread in the media gaining more and more

followers. The influence of the media in disseminating a biased message contributes to the

increasingly violent reactions of people who believe fervently in an idea, and who are not willing

to listen to different opinions. Seife coincides with the argument established by Diana Kendall in

her essay "Framing Class, Vicarious Living, and Conspicuous Consumption" when she mentions

that mass media are the main responsible in which they disseminate. The media in their zeal to

focus on a segment of the market and sell their message, feed the differences between groups

with opposing thoughts, thus creating more confrontations.