Great article. On a side node, however: please don't write code like this:

  var weAreConnected = Math.floor(Math.random() * 10) > 5
  if (weAreConnected === true) {
    this.setState({
      isConnected: true
    })
  } 
  else {
    this.setState({
      isConnected: false
    })
  }

Instead, simplify the logic

  var weAreConnected = Math.floor(Math.random() * 10) > 5
  this.setState({
    isConnected: weAreConnected
  })

The random choice is also overy complicate (and on a side node, the value is more likely to be false then true due incorrect comparision operator usage)

  var weAreConnected = Math.random() < 0.5
  this.setState({
    isConnected: weAreConnected
  })

If we use ES6, we can use the shorthand notation to simplify the code even more

  const isConnected = Math.random() < 0.5
  this.setState({
    isConnected
  })