Question regarding "sea" versus "es."

Question

A book I am reading has the following first sentence within a chapter: "El Internet ha hecho que nuestra vida sea mucho más facíl." (It doesn't actually have "El" as the article present, but I assume it should be there.)

My question is, why not "es mucho más facíl"? It seems a simple statement is being made, one that will soon be proven by some following arguments. Does the inclusion of "sea" as the subjunctive imply that there is doubt here and the reader might expect some arguments against this idea?

In that sentence you have to write "Internet" instead of "El Internet". - juaner, Dec 21, 2016

Is there a rule regarding this? - RolloMartins, Dec 21, 2016

Answer 1

Another to understand it: What the internet has done (present perfect action) is to make life easier (which will happen in the future in relation to the first action), ie: The internet has made it that our lives will be easier. The subjunctive here creates the nuance of a future action - sea is correct.

Answer 2

"Sea", is correct. "Es" is not. The key is "El internet ha hecho que". It is a matter of influence. The internet has definitely made our life more easy (and it saves paper ). Would our life be easier without the internet? That's an unknown, so there's definite influence here. Also, the fact that there are two subjects: "the internet" and "our life". The big clue is "que". You could rephrase the statement and say, "El internet hace más fácil nuestra vida.".

I hope this helps.