The Connection Gap: Why Americans Feel so Alone

by Laura Pappano

Shopping online. Chatting on the cell phone. Computer games. Instant travel to wherever you want to go. Yet all these conveniences and entertainment come at a high price. By surrounding ourselves with gadgets and material comfort, we are cutting ourselves off from what matters most. Our fellow human beings.The Connection Gap explores the new loneliness of people who are over-committing and under-connecting. Laura Pappano takes a passionate look at the pressures and desires of modern culture by drawing on personal experience, academic studies, and perceptive observations of our culture as reflected in advertising, literature, and popular magazines. Pappano turns an unflinching eye at the benefits-and drawbacks-of life in our frenzied, technological society. When we choose to order groceries online, what happens? We miss out on the smells and sights of the food that is an integral part of life, and we no longer experience the easy-going chatting with fellow shoppers and grocery-store workers. Our children, now participating in their "leisure-time activities" through regimented classes after school, no longer play with each other in their own neighborhoods. We hire pet sitters rather than asking neighbors to help out. Chances are we barely know our own neighbors, anyway. Yet with all these armchair conveniences, we are no happier nor more relaxed than we were decades ago. We need to engage and reconnect, Pappano states, by infusing our lives with some of the activities we have worked so hard to banish. She concludes with concrete suggestions for filling our lives once more with what's really important-spending time with each other, and less time with the gadgets around us.

231 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 2001

Reviews

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in January 2002 and still remember parts of it! I was doing research for a college class paper in Fall 2001 about TV shopping channels and this book was one of my sources. I was so intrigued every time I opened the book that I ended up making time during my semester break to finish reading the entire book (no time for pleasure reading in college). It's been awhile so the information is out of date, but the concepts are very well thought out: i.e. we live in bigger houses but feel more disconnected from our neighbors. I really enjoy reading nonfiction that is researched but still reads like fiction.