Connected, but alone? - A Response to Sherry Turkle
Sherry
Turkle’s Ted Talk “Connected, but alone?” truly resonated with me, and helped
me realize why I find social media and constant access to my smart phone so
isolating. Halfway through watching the
presentation, I deactivated my Instagram account, because Turkle made so many
persuasive points on how people rely on various social media platforms for
“instant listeners.” Lately, I find
myself craving trips to places with no cellphone service, or wish to purposely
forget my phone at home so that I stop feeling guilty for always wanting to
check Instagram or Facebook – although, I then worry that someone won’t be able
to contact me in regards to something important and I settle for leaving my
phone on airplane mode, or use the new iPhone feature “Downtime” which lets
users schedule limited access to distracting apps. Often, I consider locking my phone in the
safe, simply to deny myself access. This
isn’t a one off, Turkle-induced desire to teach myself the value of solitude,
but something I have been considering everyday for longer than I can remember,
but Turkle does provide valid reasoning for severing ties with certain
technology in favour of human interaction.
https://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together
I couldn’t agree with you more Jenni. Even though I still use a flip phone and don’t even know how to retrieve my text messages I have felt the effects of this new digital age, I do know how addictive Facebook can be. I found myself basing my self esteem on who liked my pictures or what type of responses I received to what I always arrogantly assumed were “profound” comments. I have also seen how my kids can’t talk like we do, either in person or especially on the phone (they are lost when they actually have to “talk” on the phone). But In especially related to the following statements: “I find social media and constant access to my smart phone so isolating / the value of solitude / human interaction”. Our quickly eroding verbal communication skills is only a symptom of what may the worst consequence of digital media addiction, our loss of humanity. When we feel more comfortable communicating with a machine than another human being, does that mean (at least on an emotional level) we are becoming more machine than human?
ReplyDeleteYou make some great points Jenni, especially this fear many of us seem to have learned, that we'll miss something vastly important if we don't keep our cellphones glued to us. Especially for students in our program of digital communications and production; this is the market we're trying to stay connected to.
ReplyDeleteHaving grown up where cell phone service was fairly poor, and going back and visiting my folks there, its always so refreshing. I definitely recommend it!