Web of Introverts or Social Webs

In Sherry Turkle’s Ted Talk, “Connected, but alone?” he is talking about something totally prevalent in our society today. It is so interesting that we are glued to our devices – we are essentially addicted. But what’s really crazy is as hyper-connected as our world is today we keep each other at a distance with these technologies. Even with Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms, we can’t get enough of each other, but we at a distance and when we are in control of the quantity. This is what Turkle calls the ‘Goldilocks Effect.’ Turkle admits that she is just as sucked in my texting and her phone just as much as the next person. She uniquely opens her talk with telling the audience that she received a text from her daughter wishing her good luck. She recognizes that these technologies have become totally vital to our existence today and to just get rid of them would be moving backwards. She says that instead we need to learn how to control as opposed to just eradicating it. What Turkle does propose is that instead we learn how to control how these technologies control us. ‘Alone together’ is a term to describe when we are with each other but our phones are taking us somewhere else. I’m sure we have all scene people that are out to dinner together but are all on their phones. And I know I have been guilty of this. She later brings up an interesting idea that we need to learn how to be alone without technology. We use phones as a way of not having to deal with out thoughts or what is in front of us. What we need to really do is use technology as a way to become more self aware of how technology is affecting us and become more present in reality.