We hear a lot about the virtues of being connected, and we find ourselves at the center of a new world in which the pleasures and pay-offs of “connectedness” are taken as an increasingly indisputable fact of life. Does this new cultural ideal live up to its billing?

We hear a lot about the virtues of being connected, and we find ourselves at the center of a new world in which the pleasures and pay-offs of “connectedness” are taken as an increasingly indisputable fact of life. Does this new cultural ideal live up to its billing?