Growing Up Tethered By Sherry Turkle

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

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

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.

It is widely accepted that technology can be used for people to connect with one another. One primary example that may spring to mind is the smartphone. No matter the distance between two people, the other party is only a text, call, or instant message (IM) away. In consideration of that, certain methods are favored over others. In her work titled “No Need to Call,” Turkle examines why there is a decline of phone calls. She surveys different generational demographics that bring her to the consensus that, regardless of age, texting holds wider appeal because there is less commitment involved. As a result, calls are more significant, only to be used if one is a family member or if the message cannot be properly expressed over text. Cases of the latter may even come with restrictions. One person that Turkle interviewed claims that it was easier to deal with traumatic news without immediately speaking about

Imagine receiving a text from one of your friends; a hilarious joke they had thought of on a whim. You could send a laughing-face emoji or the more common "lol" text back, but it could never take the place of both of your side-splitting laughs filling the room if you were together. A group text couldn't even come close to what a night out with friends would be. Technology is creating a deadening power on society by disconnecting people from the world around them, replacing the meaningfulness of human interaction, and simplifying thoughts and pleasures to only the most immediate.

In her essay “No Need to Call,” Sherry Turkle makes the claim that smart phones, texting in particular, are having a negative effect on the way humans interact and communicate with each other. The issue of how smart phones are changing our social behaviors is important because it can potentially impact the future of the human race. With smart phones, computers and tablets, our society is entering into uncharted territory and we cannot be certain of how the outcome will change our social interactions. Figuring out whether or not these changes are negative or positive is a pertinent topic for all people because everyone is affected by these new technologies in their everyday lives, whether they have them or not. Turkle believes that the way we are communicating through these devices is starting to develop us into humans who are too reliant on impersonal forms of communication to the point that it is changing how we interact with others.

The written word,now a weapon, is now digitized and feed through media. “A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon.” (Bradbury 58). Not only have books become a media revolution so has social interaction. Social media allows for connections formerly unheard. “The problem, they say, is that we spend so much time maintaining superficial connections online that we aren’t dedicating enough time or effort to cultivating deeper real-life relationships.”(WSJ). This avenue of socialization allows for discretion of the true life and person of the poster. “And even worse, the human condition is beginning to devolve. We have become addicted to the vanity of social media unable to expose our lives to the world.”(Green). This media based socialization can overtake the lives of many. “When you add it all up, the average American spends more than 10 hours a day plugged into some form of media.”(Synder). Making the human race even more technology

This is just one of several reasons that technology has had a negative effect on daily human life throughout the world. Uniformity can be good is small portions, but a decrease in uniqueness can be harmful to society. This is yet another effect of the decrease in human contact, an increase in uniformity and a large decrease in uniqueness. Social media has led to a decrease in diversity, most of the population sees and watches the same things leading to a sudden increase in uniformity. This increase in national uniformity was observed with the increase in use of the radio in the past; however, today this uniformity is taken to a much larger scale through movies, YouTube, and other social media showing an enormous portion of the world the same images. In the past there was very little media tying people together, and this led to a large scale of diversity that is no longer present today due to social media. The decrease in diversity makes it harder for people to truly express themselves, this makes human contact only harder to maintain. Another cause of this increase in use of technology is the breakdown of mutual appreciation for others. This issue can be observed particularly in the increase in use

Office workers and businesses are not limited to phone calls, meetings or mail to communicate with each other anymore. Electronic email can be used and not interrupt the recipient. The

Over the past few years, technology has become a significant part of people’s every day lives. It helps people connect with those far away, but in the process, disconnects themselves from others close with them. Technology has helped improve the lives of many people through transportation and more, but overall has torn us apart. The constant usage of technology has people’s eyes glued to a small screen; they often forget to communicate with those around them.

3. As people decide to use technology to communicate more and talk to people less, a potential decline of verbal speaking skills, social skills, and a lack of human presence and warmth may occur.

The Mass Media and Technology as an agent of socialization has grown in the last 100 years such as radio, television, movies, music, and the Internet. According to a 2015 Pew research study, seventy-three percent of teens have or have access to a smartphone while only thirty percent have a basic phone (Lenhart, 2015). Mass media and technology can introduce us to new cultures, beliefs, and viewpoints. Alternatively, many social scientists argue that technology and mass media is making our relationships suffer as we are not attentive to the other person or any ideas (Witt,

Politician Christian Lous Lange once said, “Technology is a useful servant, but a dangerous master.” Even though Lange spoke these wise words over a hundred years ago, their truth translates into today with ease. To better understand today’s interpretation, Sherry Turkle’s essay “Growing Up Tethered” acts as a useful tool. Her use of qualitative evidence is easily relatable creating plenty of opportunity for discussions. As a clinical psychologist, Turkle brings in a perspective unfamiliar to most STEM students. For exploration of how recently developed technologies affect our lives, “Growing Up Tethered” by Sherry Turkle grants an intriguing first step towards lively classroom discussions.

Most of us use social media to communicate with our family, friends and our loved once. Since almost all of my friends live 8000 mile away, I use Facebook, Instagram, and viber to keep in touch with them. Bur recently I started noticing it has become more than a means of communication. I start posting a picture and obsesses about how many likes I get, checking other peoples Facebook just to see if they have more friends than me, believing every post without questioning if it’s a fact and funny enough I start sending friend request for people I don’t even know. Christine Rosen, a senior editor of the New Atlantis and resident fellow at the Ethics and Public policy Center in Wessington, D.C. on “In the Beginning Was the World”, she wrote how technology is affecting the society’s critical reading ability. Peggy Orenstein, an author and a contributing writer for the New York Times, on “I Tweet, Therefore I Am” she talks about how social media is distracting as from fully live in the moment. Even though the development of technology have increased the quality of life, it also brought undeniable challenges to our society. The constant use of social media and internet has increase society attention-seeking, Distracted, and decries critical reading. The use of social media has increased dramatically throughout the years.