Cooling Bodies is a collection of six short stories that explore contemporary technology, Internet culture, and social media through various subjective positions ranging in age, gender identity, sexual orientation, and social background. Cooling Bodies employs classic short story theorists, sociological and philosophical theorists, and the inspiration of prominent authors in the genre, as a means of situating its stories in the broader tradition, as well as reexamining common conventions of this tradition through a contemporary lens. The stories of Cooling Bodies align sociological concerns regarding human alienation with familiar ideas vested in short fiction criticism, exploring digital technology as a common factor that has the potential to simultaneously connect and estrange individuals. The manuscript uses irony as a primary techn ique to express this paradox of communication through the impasse of character perspectives. Cooling Bodies views storytelling as a structured act of loneliness, and it portrays human connection as a perpetual experiment in language.