Analysis Of Growing Up Tethered By Sherry Turkle

Sherry Turkle's article "Growing Up Tethered" exposes the change in adolescent's demeanor while growing up in a technology-fueled world. This modern world inhibits growth towards independence, causes psychological problems, and an intense amount of pressure to uphold online identities. She opens up with various experiences today's youth have gone through trying to stay connected. Some go as far as to risk their own lives and the lives of others to check their phone.

Within the decade, people can agree that technology has gradually impacted lives every day. Whether people believe it is progressive or destructive, it is established that for some, the impact of technology is quite concerning. An ongoing topic is whether teenagers are in fact addicted to their smartphone devices and social media. In Sherry Turkle's’ piece “Growing up Tethered” she provides student testimonials that only proves that teenagers from the ages sixteen to eighteen feel the need to be on their smartphones at all times. Although, technology does have positive outcomes and uses, Turkles’ points that teenagers are too tethered to their devices and are not as safe while using their device is correct because society is able to recognize

Sherry Turkle’s primary argument in her essay, “Growing Up Tethered”, is the current generation of

The use of technology has increased rapidly as time has gone by.  In “Growing Up Tethered”, Turkle proves that the young generation need to be connected at all times by relying on their phones a lot. Reality is now based on technology, which people now live off of. Turkle’s argument in “Growing up Tethered” was used in the form of a book, with a well-organized smoothly transitioned article telling of the disconnection of the world we live in today, due to technologies such as cell phones, and social networks. We are slowly becoming a society of distance amongst each other with face to face conversations being limited to 20minutes phone conversations, and on social network sights we are making a portrayal of a person who we are

In today’s world, many people believe that technology’s sole purpose is to draw young people away from the real world and reality. Just because you do not realize it, it does not mean it is not happening. If you think back to when you were younger, was technology the same as today? However, technology is forever changing and improving. It affects everyone, not just the young group of people. Technology changes our brains, souls, and our very being. Once technology sucks you into the whole of its essence, you will have a hard time changing your life style.

Can you imagine life without your cell phone? Does the thought give you anxiety? These days, technology plays a huge role in our everyday lives. You can do just about anything on the web and a smart phone provides instant access. In her article “Growing up Tethered,” author and founder of MIT Initiative on Technology and the Self Sherry Turkle discusses the attachments people have with their cell phones, the web, social media, and technology all together. Turkle speaks with numerous high school students about the relationship they have with their phone and the issues that arise from being tethered to it. We learn that communicating through mobile devices and the web takes the personal emotion out of the conversation, and real life interactions

We rely on technology for everything in our lives today. It is hard for us to be more than ten steps away from our phone. Dependence on technology is even evident in Fahrenheit 451. In the novel, the TV is everything to some people. It becomes their friend their family and even their life. They even have technology that butters their toast and medical procedures. We use technology everyday whether it is our phone, laptop, or ipod. We use them every single day all day long. If something was not to work for a single day our society would crash with the absence of technology.

There are few places on this Earth, if any, where the possibilities are truly endless. However, if you detach yourself from the physical world and emerge into the “online” world, you find that this just might actually be accurate in this realm. The World Wide Web has had so much to offer to us since the early 1990s, but with this comes controversy. Unleashed onto a plane of seemingly immeasurable freedom of anonymity, was the world ready for such responsibility? Since those early days when new emerging technology changed our lives immensely, have we at all become a better place, or have we bitten off more than we can chew, and doomed our human relations forever? Exploring these concepts are three in-depth articles, including: “Growing Up Tethered” by Sherry Turkle, “The Loneliness of the Interconnected” by Charles Seife, and “Cybersexism” by Laurie Penny. Although it is thought that the Internet brings the world together, it actually does not help us politically, culturally, and economically like one would believe, as it makes us unable to be independent, isolates us from different points of view, and encourages real-world violence against women and other minority groups.

In her article “Growing Up Tethered” Sherry Turkle explores how the constant connection to the Internet is negatively affecting the development of adolescents, and postulates that growing up “tethered” to their cell phones, is interfering with their normal psychological progression into adulthood. Referring to the idea that the ubiquitous cell phone allows teenagers to contact their parents’ at any time, she states that “adolescents don’t face the same pressure to develop the independence we have associated with moving forward into young adulthood” (Turkle 431). Additionally, the author touches on aspects of the lack of privacy and time adolescents have for themselves, asking “When is downtime, when is stillness?” (Turkle 430). While the

Although technology can bring people together and has educational tools it can tear us away from what's real in life. Technology has become such a big part of our lives that people can now just look at a watch and check their emails or watch a video. People are being consumed by their own technology devices technological to the point that instead of spending actually face to face time with their family they are in their room and in their bed just watching youtube. There are many problems with the way technology negatively affects people. To name a few, people are constantly distracted, there are many individuals that are in social isolation because they are always on their device. Also, an individual can suffer from technology addiction which leads to having a warped sense of reality.

Technology is a way that all six billion people in the world can communicate with each other. We can follow people from all over the world on Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter, and many more social media sites. Technology gives us ways to communicate with celebrities, your child that you recently sent off to college or the world, and your friends and family who live in different states than you. Technology in video games allows us to play in multiplayer mode with our friends, while being at our own houses. New advantages with technology is that we can text, call, and use the internet all on one device. Also, technology plays a great role in the medical field. I do not think technology isolates us from society, I think that technology connects us with one another in a unique way.

Technology has become a social norm in American society. There is always some form of technology wherever you may go. Technology affects almost everyone in a negative way. While technology continues to advance, school and work performance begins to diminish. Humans tend to get sidetracked when they focus on a certain thing for too long, and this can cause a person to slack off in daily activities. Isolation is also a result of technology; it consumes up valuable time that a person may have with family members, especially if they are in the same room. There are numerous things that are unethical about today’s technology. Some feel that technology is very beneficial to our society. To an extent, it is but morally humans should do things for themselves instead of always depending on some form of electronic for assistance or to satisfy a need. Professors and staff use every aspect of technology especially in classrooms to expand learning and to circulate information. Technology should be used for certain things but not for everything because in the past we did not have access to these things. In our present day, technology is seen as a necessity instead of something that is optional.

First, technology has eliminated separation between parents and their children. Parents give their children cell phones at a young age; the child is to answer when the parent calls. The cell phone is to give the child freedom to spend time with friends or explore the city alone. “Yet, the tethered child does not have the experience of being alone with only him- or herself to count on” (431). Although parents gave the child a cell phone to keep in touch, adolescence would rather leave their cell phone at home to stay separated. Adolescents have not yet experienced being alone and leaving their phone at home, but it can help them experience that feeling of freedom.

A world where every action, feeling, and thought originates from what people interpret on a screen is the result of society’s obsession with the Internet. Turkle starts exposing how severely attached, or “tethered,” teenagers are to their cell phones and the digital world. This leads into a discussion on privacy, or the lack thereof. Expanding on that idea, Turkle writes about how teenagers are not able to claim independence due to the tie to their cell phones and thus those who pay for them, their parents (Turkle, 238). This lack of growth stunts their identity-forming process and further agitates their obsession with the world online. The accessibility of instant validation from peers, or strangers for that matter, on the Web entices people away from the real world around them. Turkle

Where technology once before acted solely as a connection tool, inviting us to involve our lives with those of others around the world, it has slowly turned to both a connection and an isolation tool. In her 2012 TedTalk “Connected, but Alone,” Dr. Turkle, a professor with a Ph.D. in Sociology and Personality Psychology, agrees that technology is detaching us from human interaction, stating that technology allows us to “put our attention wherever we want it to be; …always be heard; and…never have to be alone” (TEDTalks). Dr. Turkle believes that we turn to technology for attention because, unlike the real world, there is always someone or something in the virtual world available to listen to or to