“Connected, but alone”

Sherry Turkle’s talk in Ted Talk, “Connected, But alone?”, she started her talk about a text
message from her daughter which she then said that she loves getting or receiving a text because
for her, receiving a message from text is like getting a hug. Turkle stated the effect of technology
in our life which gives an impact on how these technologies affect our communication or the way
how we interact with other people, how today people use technology to connect more often than
the face-to-face conversation. Turkle’s Ted Talk tells us that we are letting technologies control
us like we are so into these technologies and forgot to look at the real world and just spending their
time focusing on the virtual world. She said that even in funerals, board meetings, classes,
presentations etc we still derives our attention to our cellular phones or laptops and only pay
attention on what only interests us and she said that it is important to listen to each other even in a
boring bits because it's when we stumble or hesitate or lose our words that we reveal ourselves to
each other. She also talked about the idea called “Goldilocks Effect” which means she said ‘not
too close, not too far, just right’. As the talk goes by she also mentioned the reason behind why we
expect more from technology and less from one another is that because technologies are always
there when we are at our most vulnerable side. To sum it all up Turkle wants us to know or learn
how to be alone because as she said “if we’re not able to be alone, we’re going to be more lonely”
“If we don’t teach our children to be alone, they will only know how to be lonely”.

Nowadays, people are really into technologies. Based from what Sherry Turkle said from
Ted talk “We expect more from technology and less from each other” this line is so real.This line
really defines our relationship today with each other that we have, we all know that all of us now
have phones in our pockets in our hands. When we actually hang out with our friends and then
instead of talking to them expressing how we feel, sharing our thoughts, ideas and experiences, we
are actually busy with our phones checking our messages our emails, profiles and taking selfies. I
have encountered a lot of these situations, when my friend texted me that she will be coming to
our house because she misses me and want to have a chit chat with me so when the time she arrived
we went directly to my room. We talked a little bit like asking “how are you” and then answered
“im fine” just like that and then she borrowed my phone, she asked me if we have a Wifi so I told
her we have so she asked me if she can connect to our wifi and I said yes. So I really feel dismayed
because after she connected to our wifi connection, she focused her attention on social media’s,
twitting some tweets , searching some images and so on. I thought that she’s visiting me because
she want to have a bond with me but then she’s just focusing on her cellphone watching videos
and then laugh. So with this I guess technology is helping us to forget others. It seems that it’s
distancing relationships. We are becoming less involved with each other and more involved in this
virtual world.

“We’re lonely, but we’re afraid of intimacy.” This is another line from Turkle, One
example that comes up to my mind is the dating websites that help facilitate love connections
between individuals seeking a relationship or interaction with one another. It really seems that
some individuals on dating websites are lonely, but choose to seek technological rather than
physical interactions. I believe face-to-face communication can be more satisfying than text
messaging which can be misinterpreted of what we are truly trying to say to one another. I have a
friend who wants to be alone at some times like she really is an introvert person and then she told
me how is it feel to have a boyfriend and then afterwards she downloaded an application which
you can interact with other people from different countries its like dating app. She then told be
weeks had past that there’s this guy she likes and ask her to become his girlfriend but she’s afraid
of what will happen so they remain complicated until they lose in touch. For me Maybe if we saw
the person we loved everyday, it would be easier to be intimate in person rather than chatting on
Facebook at a certain time like I don’t like the concept of a boy asking to be his girlfriend through
chats it seems that it’s not serious or just out of boredom.

This can be connected to business, when your in a meeting just like what Sherry Turkle
said that instead of listening to discussions some are just checking or using their cellphones and
just listen to part that interests them. In business, this attitude is not good because as a sign of
respect we must listen to whoever is reporting in front for their businesses to help them grow their
business or help them sustain it so we must listen to give them advices or recommendations. It is
right that we must have our instinct to limit our use of technologies, I know that technologies as
of in this time is very important to help us communicate with other people especially if they are
far from us but when we have our business we must learn to cooperate and listen to one another.
We must remember that our involvement with technology is affecting our ability to form personal
relationships, express emotions and communicate with others outside of an electronic device.