Relationships with our Iphones

Sherry Turkle’s new book is about how children of this new generation are growing up with a relationship with texting. Kids don’t feel it necessary to have a phone conversation on the telephone because it is seen as “inefficient.” If you pick up the telephone and call someone, you have to deal with emotions; rejection and other points of connection and children are finding texting as a cop out to having a face to face or voice to voice interaction. The argument against these so called social technologies are the fact that people are able to stay well connected, even when they are busy. But, teenagers are not learning how to make real connections and sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are invading their privacy and making it difficult for them to grow up. In the interview, she made a valid point: kids are no longer going to college with a fresh start: their whole high school or even life is coming with them on their Facebook page.

Another side of the technology spectrum is that people use it as therapy: not just texting, but people are using second life as a tool to create a new world. They are not learning how to deal with their own world, so they create another that they are more comfortable in. Texting can also be used as therapy. People text down the street when something is wrong, instead of waiting to see their friends in person. Virtual reality also makes it easier to critique others or tell others “sorry.” Saying sorry is not an apology unless you are specifically telling someone and see how you have hurt them. Technology is also great for kids because they can experiment with their identity. Facebook and texting allows us to perform versions of ourselves and manipulate them to what we want people to see versus what we truly are. Connections are a normal part of life, as is sleep. Technology is ruining our natural bodily functions as well as our speech.

Sherry is an optimist when it comes to technology and knows that technology is not going away and we need to make corrections with them now. She says to start making more interactions; it needs to start at the home, especially at the dinner table. If we take away the telephones at the table, we can engage in connections and conversations.