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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesIrwin Winkler’s 1995 techno-thriller The Net did not forecast today’s apps or quantify a future loneliness crisis. Its sharper prediction was cultural: a life mediated by screens can leave someone socially isolated and dangerously dependent on digital records. Tom Humberstone’s 2025 essay argues that this portrait of Angela Bennett feels familiar now—not because technology explains loneliness by itself, but because screen-based life unfolds alongside weakened public spaces and shared civic life.
What The Net got right about digital isolation
Released in 1995 and directed by Irwin Winkler, The Net stars Sandra Bullock as Angela Bennett, a computer specialist whose identity is undermined when her digital records are manipulated. In Humberstone’s reading, the film’s lasting relevance lies less in its thriller mechanics than in the conditions surrounding them: Angela is socially isolated, and much of her connection to the world runs through a computer screen.
That makes her predicament resonate in a culture where work, services, communication and relationships are often mediated by screens. The film’s language about an “electronic shadow” also captures a vulnerability that remains recognizable: people are represented in records, and those records can shape how institutions and others recognize them. The essay presents this as cultural resonance, not a precise forecast of particular devices, platforms or services.
Why a digital identity threat feels personal
In the film, the tampering with Angela’s records is not merely a technical problem; it destabilizes her sense of who she is and how others see her. She says, “It’s like I’m not even me anymore,” a line attributed to Angela in the film and quoted by Humberstone’s essay.
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Angela also describes records as an “electronic shadow” that can be interfered with. That image links the thriller’s identity plot to everyday dependence on digital records: when important parts of life are represented in systems, a person’s practical identity can feel exposed to what those systems contain and how they are used. The essay does not claim that the film predicted today’s specific data systems; it draws a broader parallel between digital dependence and the fear of losing control over one’s representation.
Does technology make people lonely?
Humberstone’s argument is not that screens alone cause loneliness. Digital tools can make communication and access convenient, but convenience is not the same as companionship or a sense of belonging. The essay’s central parallel is Angela’s isolation: screen access does not automatically supply the human connection she lacks.
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Humberstone reports two figures attributed to the World Health Organization in 2023: “one in four older adults experience social isolation” and “between 5% and 15% of adolescents experience loneliness.” These are figures as reported in the essay; the underlying WHO publication was not independently retrieved for this account, so they should not be treated here as independently verified estimates.
The essay also quotes Mark Zuckerberg, speaking on a podcast in 2025, as saying people have “fewer than three friends” on average but might want “15 friends.” This is a reported remark, not a measured population statistic.
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Why public space belongs in the conversation
To explain isolation, Humberstone looks beyond individual screen habits to the places and institutions that make shared life possible. He quotes Dan Hancox, author of Multitudes: How Crowds Made the Modern World (2024), on the erosion of public space and the “urban commons.” Hancox points to libraries, parks and squares, affordable sports and leisure facilities, accessible public transport, street furniture, public toilets and an uncommodified social and cultural life as parts of a public realm that supports people gathering together.
This reframes the question. If in-person connection is harder to find or access, screen use is only part of the story. Humberstone also invokes Margaret Thatcher’s statement, “There’s no such thing as society,” as a sharply individualist counterpoint to the idea that collective spaces and institutions matter. His point is that responsibility for isolation cannot be placed solely on people’s personal technology choices when the shared environments that support social life are also at stake.
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What the essay suggests readers can do
Humberstone’s practical close pairs personal habits with collective action. The two are related but not interchangeable: adjusting screen use may create room for connection, while sustaining places and groups gives people somewhere to connect.
- Make screen habits more intentional. Notice when screen time crowds out the kinds of contact you want, and make deliberate room for in-person conversation.
- Check in on friends. A direct message or call can be a starting point; where possible, turn it into an ongoing, reciprocal relationship.
- Join or support collective life. Local clubs and unions are examples of groups where repeated participation can build connection beyond an individual screen.
- Value shared civic places. Libraries, parks, affordable leisure facilities and accessible transport are not incidental amenities in this argument; they help make meeting and belonging possible.
The essay ends by quoting Douglas Rushkoff’s Team Human (2019): “Find the others.” That invitation captures the film’s contemporary echo without reducing loneliness to a screen-time problem.
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Sources and scope
This article draws on Tom Humberstone’s “How a 30-year-old techno-thriller predicted our digital isolation,” published by MIT Technology Review and republished by CDO TIMES on June 21, 2025: CDO TIMES. A Korean-language MIT Technology Review edition of the essay, dated June 28, 2025, repeats the film’s date, director and premise: MIT Technology Review Korea. Quotations from the film, books, speech and podcast are reproduced as Humberstone’s article transcribes and attributes them; they have not been independently checked against the original works or recordings.
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