Category: Alone Together

Sherry Turkle’s “Alone Together” explored many interesting topics about how humans are becoming more alone as we spend more time with robots and technology. Sherry makes some great points throughout the novel and even inspired me to stay off the screen as much as possible.

Turkle illustrates how far away from normal communication that modern society has become due to technology. Turkle states “ we often talk to each other on the move and with little disposable time – so little, in fact, that we communicate in a new language of abbreviation in which letters stand for words and emoticons for feelings.” This statement shows that we have become less emotionally connected with one another as we use half words to replace entire sentences. Turkle shows how spending time on your phone can affect your conversation skills and empathy towards others. Turkle says “We don’t ask the open-ended “How are you?” Instead, we ask the more limited “Where are you?” and “What’s up?” These are good questions for getting someone’s location and making a simple plan. They are not so good for opening a dialogue about complexity of feeling. We are increasingly connected to each other but oddly more alone: in intimacy, new solitudes.” This shows that Turkle believes that technology’s ability to connect us has only weakened our emotional connection and intimacy between each other. Turkle shows how cell phones and modern communication has hurt the bridge of emotions between the people of our modern society.

Turkle shows a lot about how technology has emotionally distanced modern society and makes many great points. She has inspired and almost scared me to put down the electronics that I so commonly use and find someone to have a real conversation with. I agree with Tukles idea that abbreviations have hurt our emotional communication. I have recognized this problem and am I attempting to use fewer abbreviations when I message people or simply communicate with them in general. Turkle has some very key ideas in her book that can be very helpful to societal emotional connection if these ideas are taken to heart and used as Turkle wished.

Sherry Turkle’s “Alone Together” spoke of many interesting topics about how technology and robotics can buffer the connection between the modern societies emotions. Many of Turkle’s ideas offer helpful solutions to the emotional block created by technology and have helped me use as little technology as possible and speak to other people with true emotion.

So long are the days of human interaction. We as a society are now instead, submerged into the forever growing world that is technology. While technology has many positives and has improved the way of life for many people around the world, there are also many negatives that I find to be more hurtful to society that many seem to realize. One person who I believe gets the negative impacts technology is having on society is Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor, Sherry Turkle. In her book, Alone Together, Turkle describes many different instances where technology and its use has created drawbacks within society. I believe that many of the points Turkle makes in regards to the negatives technology has on society are true, and that if we don’t do something about it, human interaction could be destroyed as we know it.

Sherry Turkle discusses a lot of important things, but just like she did, I would like to start with discussing the advancements we as a society have made when it comes to technology. Turkle starts off this excerpt by stating, “Now, sociable robots meet our gaze, speak to us, and learn to recognize us” (85). While I believe Turkle is slightly wrong with this statement, should have been talking about AI instead of robots, that is beside the point. She is entirely right in that we are currently in a world where events like these occur. Take the iPhone; for example, it does all of the actions she states. It meets our gaze when we use our eyes to unlock it. It recognizes our voices when we ask it a question, and when we do, it speaks to us as it gives us an answer. Turkle is indeed right where everyday items, like the iPhone, carry out these actions, and the iPhone is just one example in society where this is the case.

While I do see the benefits of this technology and don’t have much of a problem with it, it is when technology goes too far and starts to create problems. I thought it would be in the future, but Turkle has open my eyes to current examples of it already becoming apparent. I get hints of it becoming a problem when Turkle says, “Some people are looking for robots to clean rugs and help with laundry, Others hope for a mechanical bride” (86). These two different sentences bring different concerns to mind. When it comes to robots helping with every day, household chores, yes, of course it would be nice. It would also be nice if a robot went out and worked our jobs every day while we sat on the couch and collected the checks. The point is that it isn’t healthy. At face value, it sounds wonderful, but this could worsen an already bad problem in society, which is, we are lazy. I’m already starting to see signs that the majority of first world civilians are getting more and more lazy as the days go by. That is why I’m not at all shocked that people would want this. However, this is not very concerning compared to the sentence that followed it. Apparently mechanical brides are now on the table. I thought, or at least was hoping, that this wasn’t going to be even near an actual thing until I was long gone. Well, I was wrong. Here we are in 2019 and google results on the subject are filled with instances of it already happening. This may just be my morals and I, but I can’t get behind this one. I don’t see me, let alone many attending the marriage of a friend and their piece of metal bride. This is an example of technology going too far and something I hope we can prevent from ever happening.

Staying on the topic of robots, I find Turkle to be right on when she says, “We insert robots into every narrative of human frailty. People make too many demands; robot demands would be of a more manageable sort. People disappoint robots will not” (86). This is very true in my opinion. It seems that at every point in society where there’s possibility for any improvement, it is made with the use of either a robot or some sort of artificial intelligence. Humans could be doing just fine, but if it can be done faster and better, humans are no longer needed. For example, I used to order at the counter when I went to McDonalds, but now I order on a touchscreen kiosk. The 1 percent chance of the employee messing up my order is now 0. That 1 percent was eliminated by replacing a human with a computer. It’s not just places like McDonalds either. A lot of manufacturing jobs are being eliminated by robots. Robots are being automated to make the production of products faster and more efficient. While I hate to admit it, Turkle is right when she says, “People disappoint; robots will not” (86). Most of the problems you have with service at a restaurant or with a product would be eliminated since humans are no longer directly affiliated with them. The robots we as humans create do the jobs better that we would, due to one thing, consistency. We as humans are not very consistent. A few lines of code will always stay the same. However, if changes like this keep being made, what is their left for humans?

I would like to end by answering a question Turkle asks the reader with regards to the use of virtual, as well as any other form of interaction. She asks, “Does virtual intimacy degrade our experiences of the other kind and, indeed, of all encounters, of any kind?” (88). I believe that in most cases, it does. I feel like with a lot of things, using a portrayal of the actual thing can go two different ways. You can either get tired of it and no longer use it, or you can take up a liking to it. When you like something, you tend to use it, and with increase likeness, comes increased use. When it comes to the point where it is being used too often and for extended periods of time, I believe this is when it can have a negative effect on someone. For example, the use of video games has increased significantly over the past few decades. Its overuse can cause individuals to get distracted from the responsibilities they need to be aware of in their lives. This much time in a virtual world can make it hard for someone to assimilate back into the real world. I personally feel like it could possibly degrade all aspects and encounters of life. Maybe I’m bias in that I don’t like change, but why must we? As far as I’m concerned, in person, face to face interaction has worked for centuries. Why must we now take away from what once was the only thing humans had? While the advancements of technology are being made with good intentions, and have positive impacts on society, I believe they are also currently hurting society, and will continue to unless more people realize how caught up in it they actually are.

Work Cited

1. Turkle, Sherry. “Alone Together.” Technology: A Reader for Writers. Edited by Johannah Rogers. New York: Oxford UP, 2015. pp.85-95.

The introduction of technology was made to make tasks easier, however, the uses of it have grown enormously over the years. Writers like Sherry Turkle and Lisa Belkin have discussed the aftermath of the use of technology in terms of ethics. Lisa Belkin in her essay “The Made-to-Order Savior”, talks about how different types of medical technology have created controversies on the basis of ethics. Belkin describes an incident in which the technology was being used to conceive babies as donors for bone marrow transplants. This raised many ethical questions and the idea of eugenics playing a role in the future. In the same way, Sherry Turkle in her book Alone Together raises the idea of robots becoming an essential part of a human’s life. Turkle discusses the way in which humans have created these perfect avatars of ourselves in the form of robots and allowing these robots to play a more humanistic role in society than it was intended for. These technologies have led humans to believe that we have sole control, and created a control freak out of humans. Control is something that humans aspire to have and over the years, technology has become the medium through which we find this idea of control. However, having control isn’t always the best way to go, it can sometimes violate the ethics that have been set by society. This comes down to the theme of finding a balance between control and bioethics. I certainly believe that as a human’s nature of being ambitious cannot be controlled, it is extremely difficult to find the balance. Therefore, I can agree with the fact that we may not be able to find a balance between bioethics and the idea of control in technology.

These new technologies have allowed us to believe that many things are under control and we may possess the power to change a certain situation. “Human nature” and “human authenticity” is heavily discussed in both pieces of work. So what is this so-called “human nature”? Human nature is a little mix of characteristics that make a human. Other times it is regarded as humanity. The basic fundamental of human nature is to provide help in any shape or form possible. In the words of Belkin, “It is human nature to do everything to save a life…”(Belkin 2). We tend to desire what we cannot have in our lives. We always try to expect more from others but in doing so we also fail to be there for others This simple desire to help sometimes makes us oblivious to the fact of how it might violate others and the effects of it on society. Belkin discusses the idea of breeding healthy babies with the purpose of helping children diagnosed with deadly illnesses. The motive of helping others is great, but the method used may raise some questions on how ethical this may be. This can be tied to the idea of eugenics and control. We are trying to produce perfect babies so that they may be used to control the illness. However, we should also discuss “human authenticity”. Human authenticity is the ability to accept that we may feel pain, fear, or loneliness, and to come with terms with the realities of being human. But the introduction of robots to help us cope with these feelings isn’t making us accept it. We see technology as a means to provide us comfort rather than trying to communicate with others, we turn to robots or other things to provide us with the same type of relief. Turkle says that “Technology is seductive when what it offers meets our human vulnerabilities”(Turkle 263). This simply shows how we turn to technology in an effort to try to control something which may not require any. Our constant need to attain perfection goes out of control and may even make us a bit obsessive. It can also be said that both human nature and authenticity are affected in terms of technology.

Our morals are overpowered by our curiosity about advancing technology. There should be control and limits on technology. Both readings can be observed with a more ethical lens. In terms of ethics, it can be observed that technology has a very slippery slope. As said by Belkin, “Ethicists think in terms of a slippery slope. But it is the potential for abuse in some circumstances reason not to pursue research that can be lifesaving under the right circumstances?”(Belkin 6). One can’t be too sure about anything in terms of ethics. There is some resistance from ethicists about the morality of using these medical treatments.“There was talk in the news media of ”Frankenstein medicine” and threats by Congress to ban embryo research, which had made this technique possible”(Belkin 1). For the government, breeding a newborn just to be used as treatment is not ethical. If you look at this from the position of the parents, they will just about do anything to save the life of their child. So to some degree, we cannot really define what is ethical or not. From Turkle’s point of view, we have let technology take control of our life and have guessed that robots can make up for human comfort. It can be seen as almost unethical to let robots replace humans which require actual humans. We continue to expect more from technology and less from others. However, one cannot be too sure that involving robots at a personal level can yield positive results. It can also violate the intimacy between 2 humans. There like no way to stop a human from using technology because of how involved it has become in our lives and overlook the negativities of it.

In conclusion, I would like to state that as more technological advances humanity makes, the more controlling we will become. Modern technology is based on the need to fix or tinker with anything wrong or unwanted in our life. Our ambition to attain more and more control will ultimately cause some catastrophes, even tho we may be doing it for the right reasons but in the wrong manner. And finding the perfect balance between it will be nearly impossible because if we look at it from different perspectives, we may actually understand the given circumstances and act accordingly. Moreover, there’s no way we can keep the ambitions of other humans under control. People delay the discussion on finding the perfect equilibrium between control and ethics. They leave it to the people of the future to figure out on their own which may have several repercussions. With our constant need to tinker and fix our lives using technology, there can be no balance between the exploration of technological breakthroughs and ethical restraint. Authors Sherry Turkle and Lisa Belkin argue the negative impact technology has on human society. Belkin assumes the bio-ethical approach of the possible abuse of technology to create “desirable” traits in offspring. However, as long as human curiosity continues to peak over morality, technological advancement and restraint can never be balanced.

Works Cited

1. Belkin, Lisa. “The Made-to-Order Savior.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 1 July 2001, https://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/01/magazine/the-made-to-order-savior.html.
2. Turkle, Sherry. Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. New York: Basic Books, 2011.

While Twenge makes convincing points about the deleterious impact of digital communication on intimacy, she overlooks the natural tendency and deep emotional attachment that people have towards digital communication, which aligns with the findings of Sherry Turkle in her article Alone Together.

In her article, Turkle explains how the rise of digital communication has changed the dynamics of human interaction. As part of her argument, Turkle interviews Julia, who is a sixteen-year-old girl, about how she feels and interacts with digital communication. When Julia pulls up her phone, in which she mistakenly calls her friend, Turkle analyzed that, “Julia thinks about strong feelings, her thoughts go both to her phone and her friends. She mixes together ‘pulling up’ a friend’s name on her phone and ‘pulling out’ her phone, but she does not really correct herself so much as imply that the phone is her friend and that friends take on identities through her phone” (Turkle 804). Turkle referring to Julia’s friends taking on “identities through her phone” demonstrates how Julia’s sense of true intimacy human and relationships are ultimately established and maintained through technology. It is Julia’s deep emotional attachment to technology has led her to preserve her friendship through text messages rather than directly interacting with her friends. In addition to Julia, Turkle also discusses with Maury, who feels like he “has” to text while driving regardless of the dangers he put himself in. Maury wistfully tells Turkle that, “I interrupt a call even if the new call say’s ‘unknown’ as an identifier… I need to know who wanted to connect… I have to keep the sound on when I drive. When a text comes in. I have to look. No matter what” (Turkle 801).

People believe that they have an obligation to always be available online and expect that others do so as well. Turkle implies that people always need to be connected to someone in order to quell a sense of loneliness. Turkle portrays how digital communication hinders socialization and communication because people would rather be tethered to technology in order to connect to people more easily and quickly. Thus, intimacy becomes nonexistent for those tethered to technology. Furthermore, Turkle asks a group of teenagers of when they expect to be interrupted. One responds by saying, “‘I am waiting to be interrupted right now.’” For him, what I would term “interruptions” is the beginning of a connection” (Turkle 801). People are constant waiting to be interrupted, in which people perceive interruptions the same as connections.

Technology and social media have profound influence on human identity today; it has led to less human interaction and has suppressed human development. The accessibility that technology offers us has transformed the values we place on processes, experiences, and relationships with others.

In Chapter 6 Turkle expresses, “The robots’ special affordance is that they simulate listening; which meets a human vulnerability: people want to be heard” (Turkle, 116). Although I find it helpful to get things off your chest, talking to a robot is just like writing in a journal or diary. Intimacy is being replaced by efficiency. Rather than enduring the tough conversations, the uncomfortable situations, humans opt to express themselves with a device in hand. Social media and messaging on digital platforms can strengthen friendship bonds that were formed in humane, personal interactions, but can they create those bonds? Although social media allows us to communicate with others, the frequency and quality may not have a positive impact on the quality of communication and relationships. Turkle explains, “If you practice sharing “feelings” with robot “creatures,” you become accustomed to the reduced “emotional” range that machines can offer” (Turkle, 125). These adaptations have serious consequences; our devices alter what emotions we express. Generation Z tends to keep themselves at a distance from their feelings, more focused on their outer appearance. The more we connect through technology and not face-t-face, the more our thoughts lean outwards rather than inwards.

When young people today use technology to distract themselves from feeling emotions and being in tough situations, they lose the opportunity to learn healthy coping skills. According to Adler, “Only such persons who are courageous, self-confident, and at home in the world can benefit both by the difficulties and by the advantages of life. They are never afraid. They know that there are difficulties, but they also know that they can overcome them” (Adler, 39). Adler emphasized the importance of overcoming obstaclesas critical to the development of healthy human advancement. Social connectedness and empathy are very important for children to develop and experience. “But Generation Z may be using technology so frequently in order to avoid struggles in their offline lives or to find belonging by using escapism and fantasy to fill time and emotional voids” (Turner,2015). Solitude is a space for independent thoughts and discovery. Disconnecting is the only way to create this space. Social media has transformed the way humans interact with each other and created a disillusioned connectedness. Social media gives humans the impression of involvement in each other’s lives, but we aren’t physically involved. The perception that you are involved while being at home alone creates a dangerous cycle of self-isolation. Nothing can compare to the emotional feelings and intimacy experienced with real face to face connections.

But smartphones and social media have presented a shift in expectations of companionship and how to respond to feelings of boredom and loneliness. There’s always the possibility of instant gratification at your fingertips. This has created a hunger that yearns for endless affirmation. Rather than accepting imperfection and human frailty, the norm has shifted towards vanity masked as self-love. Digital communities alone will always be unfulfilling for human beings in the end.

The example that parents set with their smartphones should be considered as well. Putting down phones and interacting one-on-one is crucial to build up their sense of self. Children need to connect with other people in order to find a sense of purpose. Turkle writes, “We work so hard to give expressive voices to our robots but are content not to use our own.” This voice can and should be encouraged at home.

References

1. Adler, A. (2011). The science of living. Mansfield Centre, CT: Martino. (Original work published 1930)
2. Turkle, Sherry. Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. Basic Books, 2017.
3. Turner, Anthony. “Generation Z: Technology and Social Interest.” The Journal of Individual Psychology, vol. 71, no. 2, 2015, pp. 103–113.