It's amazing how much the original promise of the internet, which was to eliminate isolation

or mitigate it, and to connect strangers who would never have any chance of meeting, but through

great serendipity and a little bit of non-serendipity, have reason to connect and befriend one

another and form a community, how much that doesn't appear to be on tap.

I mean, whether or not you think social media has done it well, that was what was offered as a huge part of its promise.

And here the promise is like, who needs humans?

And that's worrisome.

Welcome to offline. I'm John Favro.

All right. I'm here with my fearless producers, Austin and Emma.

Hello, John.

Hey, guys.

Hello, hello.

All right.

Would I tell us who you spoke to today?

I talked to Jonathan Zittran.

He's a professor at Harvard.

He's a professor of law, public policy, and computer science.

It's a lot.

That's a lot.

And he's the co-founder and director of Harvard's Berkman-Kline Center for Internet and Society.

Yes.

So really just like a perfect, perfect person to talk to on this pod.

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