Connected, but Alone?

 

In TedTalks "Connected, but Alone?" Sherry Turkle discusses the negative impact that technology has on how people connect. She argues, "our little devices, those little devices in our pockets, are so psychologically powerful that they don't only change what we do, they change who we are."  What I think Sherry meant is that it is as if our cellphones are in control of us. That our devices have a hold over us to the point where it is as if we are the machines, as we interact less and less with other humans and spend more time with our devices. I know people who actually look forward to red lights while driving, as it means they get to pick up the phone and click play on another ‘epic fail’ video. Not to mention texting, as if its a proud skill to avoid a crash as they text and drive. An ideal quote to explain this behavior was best expressed by Sherry Turkle, “we are letting it take us places that we don’t want to go.”

 My views on computer-mediated communication technology are mixed. On the one hand, with face-to-face interactions, you can see facial expressions and actually hear tone of voice, which makes for better understanding. On the other hand, I find that conversations flow easily through texts, as people tend to express themselves freely when they don’t have to face you. Overall I do feel like people are letting technology take away from the need to be with people in person. There was a time when getting together for events like class reunions was a big hit. Now that there is Facebook and other computer mediated technology, the need to reconnect with people is taken away. Thanks to these sites, we no longer have to meet up in person to catch-up. You just check-out their online profile. You can see how they look, if they went off and got married, if they have children etc. It can be intrusive, if you let it.

Turkle goes on to claim, "Human relationships are rich and they're messy and they're demanding. And we clean them up with technology. And when we do, one of the things that can happen is that we sacrifice conversation for mere connection. We short-change ourselves. . . . Over and over I hear, "I would rather text than talk." And what I'm seeing is that people get so used to being short-changed out of real conversation, so used to getting by with less that they've become almost willing to dispense with people altogether."  Personally, I prefer talking than texting but there are cases where texting is more suitable. While I agree with Turkle, I cant say texting is all bad. I will say that there is a time and place for everything and people just need to know how to determine when that is. I found it funny when Turkle said an 18 year old boy, who was an expert at texting told her “someday but certainly not now, I would like to learn how to have a conversation.” When I heard that I thought it was a joke. My friends and I could go on and on having debates about any and everything. It would seem that my generation is slowly loosing the ability to have meaningful chats with their peers.  This really bothers me. I worry for what future we will have.

Being alone feels like a problem that needs to be solved