Technological Dependence

Listening and reading the interviews with Sherri Turkle, a lot of things that I have been talking about with people and in classes came to mind. The idea of media decadence where people are less knowledgeable, but have increased access and more efficient access to knowledge. It also made me think about how many technological determinist's might view current technology as extending the forms of our own biological functions and creating and working towards a more informed, intelligent, and efficient society. However extending out functions through technology is making our natural abilities weakened, and less relied upon in younger generations.

Sherri Turkle's interviews were very interesting when she describes a generation that myself and others my age missed as young people growing up, but the generations only a couple years after us have found themselves in with future generations growing up even differently and more dependent upon technology. People born in the 1950's etc, had to worry about the dark cloud of nuclear holocaust looming over them at all times that we when born took for granted. Now generations have to worry about further control and technological tracking constantly and the fear of the public sphere.

I thought it was interesting that she believed that children are crying out for attention from their parents who are constantly "plugged in," and their work translates from the workplace to the home front. It was interesting to hear that sufficient parental connections aren't being made because of our obsessions with technologies that even babies aren't getting the attachment they need sometimes, because their mothers are too busy texting while feeding them, or they aren't watching them do tricks on the playground, because they are connected to work. It was also interesting to hear that the preferred way of communication these days is through text rather than voice or face to face, because it allows a person to think before speaking and draft up and craft the perfect message to say. This was interesting to me because my sister and her husband both told me they prefer to text each other rather than call, because phone conversations get awkward or can be uncomfortable. At the end of one of the interviews Turkle seemed optimistic that social skills and relationships would improve and be less effected by the digital age as future generations tire of the constant upkeep of their digital performance, and children desire full attention from parents. I would like to believe the author, but if dependence on technology continues at the rate it is, social skills and real-life face-to-face communication may go by the wayside and be a secondary value in society.