QDW #3: Connected but Alone

Mary Biviens

WIFYS

Dr. Shannon Mortimore- Smith

2/23/2015

Connected but Alone

Sometimes when I am walking down the street and I see someone who I wish not to talk to, I’ll slide my headphones in my ears and listen to music. That way the person will not make an attempt to gain my attention. I catch myself doing that all the time, using my phone as an escape to avoid communication. It seems to work all the time for me. In making this comment I feel not only me but all of us lack true communication skills nowadays because of the use in technology.

“We’re getting used to being alone together” Sherry Turkle tells. What she proclaims here is that this new generation often uses our devices to escape from the real world. We do not surely notice it but sometimes of course we often catch ourselves doing it. Over the years technology has gotten more smart and creative. We are able to send out emails and talk to our friends on social media but some of us has a difficult time making eye contact. The problem with that so is because we have gotten so used to communicate through all types of resources with technology we find it harder to discuss face to face.

I could often agree with this issue because I find it hard to talk in person too. Talking face to face requires me to focus on eye contact, hold my body language properly to stay engaged, also face-to-face conversation deals with a lot of unsystematic speaking which is not my best tendency. We lose our communication skills the more we decide to involve ourselves in technology. I guess the real reason we decide to do this is because face-to-face conversation requires more work and effort whereas using devices to contact someone by email does not. It is so much easier to put thoughts together typing or writing someone.

We usually go to our technology for comfort. When we are alone, we watch movies. When we get bored, we play electronic games. If we’re going through emotions, we’ll put up a status on Facebook or tweet about it on Twitter. Turkle says “That feeling that no one is listening to me wants us to spend more time with machines”.

Machines all have types of sources that could benefit and entertain us rather than people can. We look up directions/ locations, we shop, we watch TV, we search information, we play music, and most importantly it gives us the opportunity to stay in contact with others. But do we? Yes, but not as we should. We have become indolent to talking to people and along the way we lost how to communicate. Our technology can provide solutions to us and that is why we turn to it.

When Turkle acknowledges that “Technology appears to us most where we are most vulnerable” she emphasizes that “We are designing technology that will give us the illusion of companionship without the demand of friendship. We turn to technology to help us feel connected in ways we can comfortably control”. During her research with the use of technology she has discovered that a woman was comfortable using a robot for her amity. She noticed that the woman had felt feelings and comfort with the robot even though we humans take on those types of traits.

I feel that we have all lost one another because of the needs we want every day. It is not hard to tell that everyone in our generation depends on themselves and isolate themselves from others and I feel the reason here is technology. Because we distance ourselves, it is difficult for us to want to help others and care for them. What we only care about is our needs and the needs that we want has a way on expanding more brilliant than before. When our needs make us lazy in doing things, such as SIRI (iPhone Navigator) finding us a nearby café, everything we do becomes being lazy and that’s all that we soon to know. The effort we had once before is not there anymore because technology is raising us.