Connection, Isolation, and the Role of Social Media

With 3.5 billion users worldwide spending an average of three hours per day on social networks and messaging, social media is an undeniable force in our society. But is it helping us to connect to one another or driving a sense of isolation?

New York Times Social Media Editor Sona Patel joined Grace Farms Foundation’s Community Initiative Director Karen Kariuki for a conversation about the role that social media plays in communities, its implications on our ability to connect with one another, and the importance of social media ethics.

About Sona Patel

Sona Patel is a Senior Audience Editor for The New York Times and is based in Los Angeles. Prior to moving to L.A., she was based in The Times‘s New York City headquarters for nearly 5 years, where she worked as a deputy editor of the social media team. Her current role is at the intersection of editorial and audience analytics. One of her primary goals is to grow The Times‘s California readership. She also heads The Times‘s efforts around reader-sourced reporting crowdsourcing. Prior to joining The Times, she worked for The Seattle Times as a social media producer where she was part of the team that won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting. She started her journalism career as a general assignment reporter for The (San Luis Obispo) Tribune. Sona graduated from UC Irvine with bachelor’s degrees in Literary Journalism and Spanish and a minor in Information and Computer Science. She returned to her alma mater in 2018 to be the commencement speaker for the School of Humanities.