In these short essays I have written up issues raised by Sherry

Turkle in ‘Alone Together’ in relation to topics regarding my art

practice. Sherry Turkle has been researching the individual’s
relationship to technology and communication for the past 15
years at the social studies of science at MIT. As a psychologist she
researches subjects as part of case studies to prove a theory on
our developing relationship with communication technology. Turkle
looks at what is compromised by the change in how we
communicate in modern society and the impact it has on the self.
Turkle presents a society in transformation and predicts a fearful
future on how we relate to each other.

I am presenting these notes as features of our new society in a

short, bullet note form.

FEATURES OF BEING ALWAYS ON

‘Networked, we are together, but so lessened are out expectations

of each other that we can feel utterly alone’

Bring constantly connected creates an absence in the physical and

the present. Public places are now full of people all addressing
existing relations and social ties, rather than opening new ones.
When people talk on their phones in public they presume that
people around them will take them as absent. Their sense of
privacy is sustained by the presumption that those around them
will treat them not only as anonymous but also as absent.

Social media turns our lives into performative environments;

people address their friends like fans on shared environments like
Twitter and Facebook.

This leads to the gameification of social relationships, game rules

change peoples behavior.

FEATURES OF MULTI-TASKING AND THE ALCHEMY OF TIME

Mobile connectivity is marketed as becoming more efficient

because it speeds up time. Speeding up time and multi-tasking
does not actually make you more productive. Takes take longer to
complete but the illusion is that you’re doing them faster because
you’re doing them simultaneously. It could be argued that tasks
done quickly are not done as well, but slow is harder to sell.
‘Educators were quick to extol the virtues of doing many things at
once: it was how the future wanted us to think. Now we know that
Multi-tasking degrades performance on everything we try to
accomplish. We will surely continue to Multi-task, deciding to trade
optimum performance for the economics of doing many things at
once.’

Pg242

FEATURES OF AUTOMATED ENGAGEMENT

‘An email or text seems to have been always on its way to the
trash’

Emails do not achieve a resolve between people quicker than a

direct phone conversation. Requests are repeatedly send back
and forth, slowing down decisive plans and outcomes. We now
look at emails as automated requests and frequently refer to them
as ‘sorting out’ or ‘shooting off’ when they’re coming from people.
This language indicates a desensitized relationship with peers,
friends and family.

FEATURES OF ONLINE CONFESSIONS

Private and personal expressions make social media an interesting
forum. Users find it easier to confessing anonymously to the void
of the web. The performance area is protected by anonymity,
vastness and control (to turn off the computer). Instead of
strengthening existing social ties by relieving the burden to existing
friends, they are dropped into the void. These personal comments
are crucial for dramatizing this environment. In Twitter Theatre I
make entertainment out of these remarks, using them for other
purposes. The anonymity shields bother the viewer and the user
from constructive discourse.

‘Anonymity does not protect us from emotional investment’

In ‘Alone Together’ Turkle describes a society suffering from the

seduction of multiple social outputs. By focusing on what suffers
from the use of communication technology she takes a realist,
slightly negative approach when compared to other cultural
commentators like Clay Shirky. In contrast Shirky believes the new
media systems allow for greater freedom and liberation for
individuals. As a psychologist, Turkle focuses on the individual’s
wellbeing and social relations rather than what can be produced by
online communities. She exposes online confessions sites that
highlight the loneliness of people using the Internet to form
personal relationships. These obscure sites reflect the transition
our society is in as we try to understand and use these devices
effectively.