Selection From Alone Together Why We Aspect More From Technology And Less From Each Other Analysis

Technology has always been a controversial subject between conservative people and innovators. Some people believe that it is a great tool to connect cultures and improve education and innovation in our society today, but others view it as a menace in our lives. “Growing Up Tethered” by Sherry Turkle and “George Orwell...Meet Mark Zuckerberg” by Lori Andrews both view technology as a dangerous tool. They believe in the many drawbacks of technology and the harm it can do to our lives with no explanation of the positive effects it has had on our society. “Our Future Selves” by Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen plays the role of a positive look at technology and its role in our lives today. It gives examples of how advancing technology helps us and improves so many peoples’s lives. We can use Schmidt and Cohen’s essay as a lens to view the other two texts and gain a different understanding of what they are writing about.

All advantages have corresponding disadvantages. Sherry Turkle’s essay “Connectivity and its Discontents” address her stance towards technological communication. Throughout her essay, she provides examples that illustrate how the world is consistently depending on technology for communication. Turkle’s opinion towards the issue is that, “she believes we’ll eventually sacrifice communication for mere connection.” Her examples make the reader consider that technological communication leads to human beings losing intensity in communication in both personal and professional situations because of distraction and convenience. The twenty-first century widely introduced a variety technological advancements which made people rely often on the technology. Thinking back to her opinion towards the issue I would agree with the idea that humans are becoming too attached to technology, but I would disagree that technology draws a wedge between people.

Clive Thompson’s “Smarter Than You Think” reflects upon the idea that technology is her to help us more than we think, rather than the popular belief that technology is ruining the way we think. Thompson believes that the pair between human and technology is making us smarter. Along with that, our minds are slowly adapting to the use of technology, advancing our thinking. Lastly, the relationship between technology and human, has brought humanity closer than ever with the ability to communicate with anyone, anywhere, at any time. Clive Thomason believes the stronger the bond between humans and technology, the smarter we can become; I also alongside with Thompson believe this is true, and if so us as humans need to embrace the use of

The illusion of knowledge, as often as not, man is reluctance to admit that he may not know it all. Real knowledge is knowing the extent of ones ignorance as in what is actually known, as depicted in Plato’s, Allegory of the Cave and Frederick Douglass’ Learning to Read and Write. There always has and always will be conflict, whether it be social or interpersonal, but Sherry Turkle takes a different view in How Computers Change the Way We Think. As ignorance or education eternally keep man imprisoned, for he will never genuinely be free. The hindrance goes beyond mere actions and thoughts, creating barriers as the real world becomes transparent.

As day progresses so as technology. In the modern society high technology devices have become indispensable to human. Electronic machines have gradually been starting to replace human work. At a factory work place, restaurant kitchen, and household laundry rooms, the improvement of technology can be seen anywhere. Mobile phone, which has only become prevalent in a few decades, can be found in anyone’s jeans pocket. However, is this situation an evolution to a new era or an over-reliance on technology. Sherry Turkle, the author of “The Empathy Diaries” expresses her concern on modern generation overusing electronic devices. She points out her main argument that the situation has deteriorated to the extend where children are losing their empathy and ability to social. Turkle, promoting the importance of conversation, not only criticize young generations for being overly obsess with electronic devices, but also oppose the ones who understand the the significance of conversation for not passing down the knowledge. It is clear that in Turkle’s perspective the improvement of technology has brought up issues that do not exist ever before. Despite that the benefit form electronic devices are inevitable the problems it brings about can never be look down. On the condition that people do not have enough self-control to overcome with the tempt form high technology devices can not only bring human short term benefits but lifetime long harm with its overly thoughtful benefits.

The advancement of technology has changed tremendously to the point where everybody depends on it. Technology can be utilized for personal use, education,isolations, relationships and so much more, where in Reclaiming Conversation by Sherry Turkle, discusses how detrimental technology can be through her studies and others sources. In chapter, Four chairs, Sherry Turkle mentions how the utilization of machines is influencing humans negatively. Therefore, the use of artificial intelligence is unsuitable for children and adults.

Technology has really changed the lives of people both physically and mentally. It brings us the new experiences. Along with technology, communication has never become so easy. But the technology has certain downsides. It soon makes us change the meaning of the word "communication" to "connection". Sherry Turkle claims, "We live in a technological universe in which we are always communicating. And yet we have sacrificed conversation for mere connection.". And I agree. Sherry uses of logos isn't effective enough, but by using numerous other modes of persuasion, she makes me agree with her argument.

Sherry Turkle, the Harvard educated MIT professor, founder and current director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self, asserts that “people have never been more connected—or more alienated” from each other; that they may not aspire to their vision of best self as their devices become increasingly important. People unintentionally place more importance on “virtual relationships over real, instant messages over deep complex feelings, robots over live

The “connectivity” of the world today seems like it is straying further and further from what was once thought as “connectivity.” In Sherry Turkle’s essay Alone together, she discusses how technology is becoming more and more powerful and tries to dispute the fact that if humans are still linked with each other on the same level we once were. Turkle discusses this point rather well when she states, “our networked life allows us to hide from each other,” (263). Also, Turkle discusses in her essay how robots are becoming more and more integrated in the world we live in; and, these robots are essentially taking the place of humans in some situations making us less connected with each other. While in “In the Forest of Gombe,” the author Jane

He asserts that the connection problem is a result of having distant relationships, not the cause of it. Turkle does not agree. Instead, her position is that shared distant connections make it difficult to create authenticity in relationships. She further believes that technology is one of the biggest threats sustaining shared connections with others. She defines the shared connection as “a love relationship that involves coming to savor the surprise and the rough patches, of looking at the world from another’s point of view, shaped by history, biology, trauma, and joy. Computers and robots do not have these experiences to share” (268). No matter how smart or swift technology can be, it will never fulfill the need to maintain relationships with others. Hence, having relationships with technology, such as computers or robots, is incongruent with the physical and emotional experiences felt by human beings. On a basic level, technology can be a good choice because it can help people who are not good at having relationships with others. Technology can encourage and teach others to communicate, but this may not be as beneficial as one would hope. No matter how well people can communicate with technology, they may still have trouble with relating to others. The only way to

Technology has tremendously changed human social behavior, which has provided a convenient way for people to communicate and collaborate with each other. For instance, Cathy Davidson, the author of “Project Classroom Makeover,” points out, there is a need to renew the current education system so that it meets the new expectation of the digital era. She discusses how technology improves social interaction when students work collectively through crowdsourcing. In “The Myth of the Ant Queen,” Steven Johnson provides the example of the complex systems in ant colonies, cities of Manchester and Internet by emphasizing the importance of collective working that intelligence emerges when people work together. On the other side, Sherry Turkle argues that technology has turned human beings become isolated. In her article “Alone Together: Why We Expect A Lot from Technology and Less from Each Other,” she discusses how humanity is transformed into a “robotic’ moment due to technology. Therefore, technology does not only help to form collective learning and social interaction that can provide an adequate platform for sharing social values, but also isolate people from each other if they rely too much on technology.

In our modern day society, it is extremely common for one idea to be represented in many different ways. Both Nicholas Carr’s article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” and M.T Anderson’s novel Feed, the broad idea of the relationship between humans and technology is portrayed. Carr’s article complains of how technology changes the way we think. Carr instigates the idea that we are losing our passion for learning as a result of the internet and search engines such as Google. These advancements, Carr proposes, lead to a world where our intelligence “flattens into artificial intelligence”. In a similar fashion, Anderson’s fictional novel addresses a set of characters who live on our planet at an arbitrary time in the future. These characters, or at least most of them, have their lives completely controlled by technology, in the form of an implanted chip, which represents to its followers the feed, a social networking site of sorts that is all-encompassing. The story shows how these technological advancements have irreversibly changed the world of the characters, where the characters are not themselves without technology. Both pieces extensively address the relationship between man and technology. While the article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid” and the novel Feed stem from two completely different genres, both pieces encapsulate the idea that technology is leading to a loss of individuality among people.

As our innovative world is rapidly moving into the future, technology is being invented and innovated at every turn. This technology ranges from top-notch video game systems to microscopic robots made to perform internal surgery. Although these impressive technological improvements were recently made, they are not entirely beneficial because this technology damages our social and learning skills, while also damaging us as humans.

Every day the world is changing and things are done differently. Technology has also affected the way students are taught and in which they learn. It has changed the classroom. Technology saves us time and allows us to access material in only minutes. “The Internet and online subscription databases, even as a supplement to the printed works in the library, allow students to see, and force them to consider or reject, points of view that they might never have encountered in decades past” (Gow 4).With all the time technology produces, it also has downsides and it also may have created a less intelligent society.

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.