Connected, but alone?

By Sherry Turkle
(Critical Analysis)

“I have written a book that celebrated our life in the internet”. That is what
Ms. Sherry Turkle accomplished in the year 1996 as she explores the bright side of
emerging technology. In front of hundreds of people, she made her Ted talk, but this
time, instead of applauding the works of technology, it is more about the opposite
side. As the world started to get in touched with the modernization, “this let ourselves
take us in places that we don’t want to go.” In relation to this, she entitled her talk as,
“Connected, but alone?” then further explained how this relates to human interactions.
By going through to its content, Ms. Turkle discussed the complexity of
living in a digital age. She made it interesting by sharing the “plugged in lives” or
stories from different generations, both elder and young kids wherein it shows how
they spend their lives with texting, emails, and posting into different social media
channels. Just like the 50-year old man who no longer interested in talking with his
colleagues and chose to spend most of his time with his phone. While there’s an 18
year old boy who just dreamed about learning how to have actual interaction with
people. As the generation goes by, it became more complicated knowing that elders
started to feel uninterested in talking to others while the young boy who had less
confident in talking in person. In relation to these real-life situations, Ms. Turkle
pointed out those little devices as psychologically powerful. Also, in physical aspect,
people feel hopeless on what they look, so to escape from that doubtful thoughts, they
are able to improve their looks to be more presentable in the eyes of many. This is
quite complicated, but this is how technology changes who really are. By further
looking to what she meant to say, she also talked about ‘pretend empathy’ that the
technology is giving to people. Since there are machines like people who also able to
talk just like us, they take this a real companion which is very unacceptable because
one thing is for sure, it doesn’t have emotions. People wanted to be heard and always
wanted to control anything they ought to say, they do not want to make mistakes and
wanted to sure that everything is acceptable to be seen in the public. One thing that
Ms. Turkle really emphasized is that, ‘recognize our vulnerability’. Do not be afraid
to reveal ourselves to each other and listen even in the dull moments of conversation
because Mr. Turkle once said, “These are the times where we stumbled and lose our
words.” As she ended her talk, she further clarified that she never suggested to stay
away from our gadgets, but to reclaim the conversation towards families and friends.
To analyze it deeper, Ms. Turkle elaborated the main point which talks about
the ignorance over the essence of a real conversation. This is supported with three
sub-points which tackles how technology changes our lives physically, mentally,
emotionally, the ‘Goldilocks effect’ and lastly, it talks about the power of solitude. All
of these ideas are entirely supported by her case.
People are overwhelmed by the satisfaction that technology provides. On the
contrary, people forget to focus on the real interaction with other people because they
only listen to what is interesting for them, just like being attached on our gadgets, it
gives people pleasure since they can control what pleases them and what is not. In
accordance with this, Professor Gloria Mark of the Department of Informatics at the
University of California says email, social media, notifications and countless other
digital distractions are eroding our ability to concentrate on individual tasks. To
elaborate more, the technology changes people’s aspects in terms of physical, mental
and emotional state. According to Ms. Turkle, “We get to edit, we get to delete. We
get to re-touch everything in our body, not too little, not too much, just right.” Trying
to reach the standard given by the media, people pretend and hide their real self for
the sake of acceptance by others. In terms of mental state. People may control what
they are going to say, again we get to edit and we get to delete. Through texting or
chatting, you will be able to say words clearly, if someone thinks that they are not
expressing the words clearly, they can change it anytime. In addition to that, they can
control where to put their attention unlike in a real conversation, you cannot take the
authority in anything that you are saying and you need to pay attention to a
conversation even it is not interesting for you. This is how technology changes what
you act and also what you think. Moreover, people remove themselves from grief
with the help of their gadgets, or in short, they hide their real emotions. Besides,
some messages that put into words are not all came from real emotions, like saying
“You are doing well” or “I miss you” through texts. Based on the survey and article
published by Fast Company, and also supporting the point of Ms. Turkle, it is proven
that detecting someone’s emotion through emails and text is not always accurately
expressed due to lack of emotional cues and actual presence. This is totally related to
the three gratifying fantasies stated by Ms. Turkle. People can put their attention
wherever they want, People are always heard and lastly, they can feel less alone.
People tries to solve loneliness by connection and used technology by sharing
thoughts as if they are really feeling that way. Talking about Goldilocks effect made
by Ms. Turkle, this means keeping in touch to people but wanted to be distant to each
other so that they can control the situation. This is also what we called the “Just right
status”. In connection to that, she pointed out those people who prefer to text rather
than to talk even in actual gatherings and meetings. “It is like being together while not
being together”, This is the most relatable part for teenagers since they do not want to
loss in touch with people but not also like intimacy and prefer to be distant. This is
confusing but that is how technology changes who really are. Technology gives
pleasure and happiness that people want to have, without knowing that we are
pretending to escape in reality; that reality is having technology as the new
companion. As the consequence, they sacrifice the essence of real conversations and
this let them take away the real companions which is us. That’s why the speaker, Ms.
Turkle, opened up about the essence of solitude. Sometimes, being alone for real leads
people to find themselves so that they can learn how to reach out to people. Being
alone let people to make self-realizations because this is also a way to teach
themselves on how to interact with others. Ms. Turkle further suggested that staying
away from technology is not the solution, instead, she urge everyone to experience
being disconnected and tries to bring back in the real image of ourselves.

To sum up the ideas stated by Ms. Sherry Turkle, she emphasized the other
side of technology in human lives. Specifically, it is about how prevalent online
communication is and how it affects the actual one. Her statements can be a lesson but
a warning as well. Just like what she stated, “Escaping from reality and not letting
yourself to feel alone gets you deeper into technology which means taking you away
from the reality.”