Turkle Video Essay

In the TED talk “Connected, But Alone,” Sherry Turkle discusses two important topics. First, she discusses how the Internet, when it first came into being, offered a promise of human connection. However, the Internet has become a place where we are even more isolated than ever, and we need to reestablish our roots in grounded conversation. It matters for Turkle because she worries that get lost in our phones, even at important events like breakfast with family members. Turkle says she has done research on people who text at funerals. It seems to me that technology, just like any technology, can have a profound psychological effect on people.
I think Turkle is right about the online selves we present on Facebook and Twitter. We “get to edit and we get to delete” how we present ourselves to others rather than the risk of a conversation where we are no longer in control. Human relationships are messy. However, in our social interactions everything is neat and clean. Turkle is not saying that social networks are necessarily bad. She is saying that our interactions with social networking can tap into a wish we have as human beings to never be alone, to have someone listen to us, and to be in control. However, life is not this simple, and we are turning to technology to fulfill this wish rather than engage with other people in a meaningful way.
Turkle is right on many psychological levels. It is commonplace for people to text message at dinner. Everyone is doing it. I think there has to be a common ground. It is not the technology that is ruining social interaction. Since it is new technology, we have to learn to use it more responsibly and in ways that do not strip of our human connections.

References

Sherry Turkle: Connected, but alone? (n.d.). Retrieved April 01, 2015, from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7Xr3AsBEK4