Are We Vulnerable To Technology?

Sherry Turkle, a Professor of Social Studies of Science and Technology at MIT, focuses her research on the psychology and social outcomes behind our relationship with technology. She claims to take an instrumental point of view on technology in her research and understands it to be both good and bad, depending on how one utilizes it. Some of her current research examines the relationships children and teenagers have with inanimate beings such as cell phones, virtual space, and computer programs. She claims that technology offers new generations something to which we are vulnerable, since texting is much less risky, is less involving, and more efficient than making a phone call.

While I took my own step out of reality into a ‘virtual environment’ online, I came across a CNN article titled, “Digital Tools to Preserve Your Friendships.” Right away it was obvious to me that this was relevant to Turkle’s work on children and teens and their connectivity to technology and increasing reliance on digital tools for communication. The article offers a recent survey on the effect of social media on our interpersonal relationships claiming, “Eighty-five percent of respondents believe their social lives have been improved by it.” This number is not at all shocking to me since those choosing to use digital tools for communication are willingly seduced into the relationship and therefore believe that technology in general can better our relationships as well as our education, economy, etc. The article goes on listing a number of different apps that can solve problems among friends. For example ‘if your friend is a cheapskate,’ no worries there is an app for you. I wonder what Turkle would have to say about these apps…