My Research novel and the source of my essential question, Fahrenheit 451, was penned by Rad Bradbury in 1953 in the basement at UCLA. The novel details the story of Guy Montag, a ‘firemen’ who is charged with burning books in their authoritarian society, and soon becomes disillusioned with his world and turns to books for answers.

Various interpretations of the novel have been introduced, from the dangers of censorship, to the mortality of shallow, materialistic whims, the dangers of lack of responsibility, and even how television limits our ability to be creative. As I read the novel, I was struck to see that no matter how social or active the characters were, each was alone in their own world filled with meaningless chatter of television or radio. This isolation of people, even spouses or friends, inspired my essential question.

Robert LaRose, Department of Telecommunication at Michigan State University, Regina Connolly of Dublin City University, Hyegyu Lee, Kant Li, And Kayla D. Hayes coauthored, “Connection Overload? A Cross Cultural Study
of the Consequences of Social Media Connection.” The article details the effects of social media in different countries and its effects on the population, from isolation to strained relationships.

In the world we know today, its rare to be without our phones, and with our phones comes constant updates from facebook, Snapchat, emails, work calls, text messages, and news websites. Very few researchers have actually studied the impacts of what this constant influx of messages, media, technology does on a person. “In the popular press, the phenomenon is discussed in terms of the tribulations of the ‘always connected,’ who are continually distracted from important life activities by interruptions from multiple chan- nels of electronic communication, sources of distraction that are present all hours of the day and that they carry with them wherever they go (e.g., Richtel, 2010).” These constant updates put stress on others, and now our no longer able to fully connect with others, which has lead to a bigger problem: Isolation.

With new technology and other social network sites and anonymous feeds, its easier and easier to diminish the need for social interaction, creating an environment of isolation from others. The authors of “Connection Overload” describe it as, “they engage with gadgets that isolate them from social interaction with real-life intimates and gradually come to prefer online to real world interaction. In such a scenario, family gatherings can be interrupted by e-mail from work, tweens sending texts on their cell phones, and teens viewing recent SNS postings from their peers” (Larose, Lee, Connolly, Li, Hayes 59) When we distance ourselves from others, we start losing our own ability to empathize with others as all we see our things behind a screen and not talking with real, living people right in front of us. We begin to value our entertainment more than human lives. This is an incredibly dangerous place to be.

How does this all this talk about social media and isolation connect to Fahrenheit 451, a story about burning books?

Guy Montag, firemen, is married to Mildred Montag, a cold, distant woman whose only attachment is to “The Family,” A soap opera she watches. She replaces her husband with a television screen, and completely isolates herself from the world to avoid confronting herself with the vacancy of her life. She even attempts suicide, and later doesn’t seem to recall it. Guy’s efforts to shake his wife out of her technological obsession bear no fruit, as she betrays him in the end, unwilling to give up her life of vacancy and television to confront the truth.

Conclusion

This pervasive problem of using technology to replace live interaction stems from a human issue, not a digital issue. We can abuse technology’s original purpose as a tool to isolate ourselves and others. Technology and Social Media offers a digital world for ‘social connection’ when in reality it is a world of isolation. The constant bombardment of updates, marketed images, and social pressure to conform to the latest standard can overwhelm and blind the person in front of the screen. With all of these factors combined, and technology use on the rise, it seems that we are dooming ourselves to an isolated and emotionless future. The only way to combat this threat is to use technology as a tool and not as a means of escape.