Alone Together

In Sherry Turkle's Ted Talk, she makes a very persuasive argument about the dangers of our constant use of Technology. She is a professor at MIT and founded and directs the MIT initative on Technology and self. She argues that more and more people today are always alone, even when we're with other poeple. She gives many examples of young even older people who are beginning to prefer texting to face to face contact, even texting while spending time with friends or familiy.

The main argument she is making in her TED talk is that our constant connection to each other via texting, facebook, and twitter is causing us to begin to value these fleeting superficial communication of real talking and real human relationships. She makes the point that we prefer using these technologies because it gives us a false sense of control over our communication with others. The non-real time component of this type of communication gives us time to let us create and refine the image we want to present of ourselves. We want to be able to talk to other people, but on our schedule, under our control. We are also starting using technology to distract us from parts of real life we feel are unneccesary continuously checking our phones all the time even during conversation with peers.

I find that the points she is making in the video are incredibly insightful because it makes me reflect on how often I use my phone and how much I rely on it. I do think that we do use chatting and texting a little too often than we talk face to face or using a phone. However, I do somewhat disagree that we like facebook, texting, and email more because it lets us present the version of ourselves that we want others to see. Personally, I find that this time and permanence of this communication is what I don't like about those technologies. Phone conversations are a lot easier for me to communicate often because I don't have time to prepare something that has to be perfect and I have more control on how soon I can get a response from the other person. Still, I agree with the main point she is making that we have to reflect on how we use these new technologies in everday life. We have to be able to balance it with real life, real conversations, and real connections.