The algorithm isolates us, connection expands us
How many times have you had breakfast while looking at your phone? If your answer is "every day," you might be starting your day on the wrong foot—or at the very least, without the chance to choose which foot to start with.
We live in a world where uncertainty has become the norm. Global crises, rapid technological change, and ongoing social transformation demand adaptability. In this context, sharing spaces for genuine human connection might be the key to our evolution as a species. Closeness allows us to discover, broaden our perspective, learn, talk, feel, improvise—and in that mix of experiences, the gray areas emerge.
Algorithms and Isolation
Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari, in his book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, argues that our ability to cooperate in complex networks has been fundamental to humanity’s development. However, today, many of these networks are mediated by algorithms that filter our interactions and confine us to information bubbles that reinforce our preexisting beliefs.
Nowadays, we tend to justify our positions based on selective slices of reality: three Instagram posts and two tweets are enough for us to fiercely defend a cause without analyzing the complexity of the facts. A recent example is the case of the Columbia University students who expressed support for Hamas without considering the broader context of the conflict—showing how fragmented information consumption shapes our perspectives and reinforces polarized views.
Working from the comfort of our homes offers exactly that: comfort. The comfort of connecting only with those we need to get something done, the comfort of not having to move too much, not having to bump into someone we disagree with, the comfort of having breakfast every morning with the algorithm that will confirm what we already think.
From a distance, our reality becomes filtered by digital layers that limit our perception of the world. We get trapped between black and white, when what we really need today are the shades of gray. As Harari also mentions in Nexus, his most recent book, intersubjectivity is the glue that holds our societies together, and it is built through human interaction—yet today, much of that interaction is mediated by artificial intelligence.
This forces us to question to what extent our worldview is still our own—or whether it has been shaped by systems that amplify our biases and deprive us of the nuance and complexity that only direct human contact can offer.
In-person vs. Virtual
Physical spaces of interaction—whether at work, in the community, or during social events—expose us to different ideas, challenge us, and force us to improvise. It’s in these unexpected encounters that new perspectives are born, where we learn to nuance our opinions and appreciate the richness of diversity.
In this sense, the debate about in-person work has often focused on the number of days people should be in the office—five, four, three… But the real conversation should center around balance, the value of spontaneous encounters, and the potential for co-creation—something that virtuality still hasn’t fully replicated.
As a society, we need to reclaim these spaces of real connection, where friction isn’t seen as a problem but as an opportunity for evolution. After all, human progress has not been driven by isolation, but by the exchange of ideas, the confrontation of viewpoints, and the construction of consensus within those intermediate tones that enrich our understanding of the world.
So, what if your morning coffee started differently? What if instead of just staring at a screen, you had someone to ask for a bite of their croissant? Maybe, in that small gesture, your world could begin to expand. Because it’s precisely in those imperfect, spontaneous human moments where our world regains the nuance that artificial intelligence cannot replicate. True human evolution doesn’t lie in the comfort of algorithmic isolation, but in the act of genuinely connecting with others.
By Paula De Caro, Partner at Olivia.
