Chollett 1

Sydnee Chollett
Professor Moore
Composition 1301
23 September 2017
Academic response #2
Before Sherry Turkle wrote her book "Alone Together" she wrote "Life on the screen",
where she found that technology was a positive invention. In the article it says that " Turkle
argued that people used the web to experiment, trying on personalities like pieces of clothing"
(1). 16 years later, in her newest book her opinion is different; she no longer finds technology as
a good invention, she called it " a corporate trap" (1). Instead of talking to someone on the phone
or in person they send a text; Turkle said " We expect more from technology and less from
others" (1).
Lehrer disagree with what Turkle wrote; he said " the portrait painted by these studies is
very different from the one in Turkles fascinating, readable and one-sided book" (3). Everyone
views technology differently, some see technology as good and others see it as bad (4). Lehrer's
seems fair; he does not bash her book and points out some good points that she made. For
example, he says "I certainly dont expect Turkle to have all the answers, but her ethnographic
portraits would have benefited from a more probing investigation of such questions" (3).
For the most part technology can keep people connected; people can keep up with what is
going on in others life by using social media, texting and talking to them on the phone.
Technology is addictive to some people, especially teenager; in a room full of people to talk to
some would rather be on their phone. In the article they talk about robots and it is not surprising
that there are robots of all types being invented; the sex robot Roxxxy might be over the top, like
what Turkle said "Roxxxy is emblematic of a larger danger, in which the prevalence of robots
makes us unwilling to put in the work required by real human relationships" (2). Technology has
its pros and cons and weather, we like it or not people are going to come up with new inventions.