Francisco III V.

Castro BSA 1 – 2
Prof. Asuncion V. Gabasa June 3, 2020
CONNECTED, BUT ALONE
Ted Talk by Sherry Turkle
1. Explain the message conveyed in the video.
- The message that Sherry Turkle wanted to point out is about the growing
dependence that people have with their “little devices” they have in their pockets.
She tackles about how the technology that we currently have in this world is not
only trying to connect ourselves with others, but how we seem to change our own
personal image along with it. She wanted to convey that not having solitude
within ourselves is going to affect us greatly, because we would not learn how to
be alone, which is a crucial thing for a person to learn. However, technology
further strays us away from the goal of achieving solitude, because when we
depend on these devices, it teaches us that being alone makes you anxious, that
you need another companion; and the most easily available way to have this is
through our screens. Additionally, she emphasized that, the reason why people
like having a connection more so than having a conversation with other people is
because they can edit themselves to what they want other people to see them
as.
2. What word/statement in the speech struck you most? Why?
- The statement that probably struck me the most was when she said, “It’s when
we stumble or hesitate or lose our words, that we reveal ourselves to each
other.” The reason that this line probably struck me the most, is because, as a
person who likes a conversation over a connection, the people of our time really
start to depend on the versions that we like to portray ourselves online; that it is
starting to feel like it is fake. Of course, most people would only like to post the
positive things happening in their lives. Most people are now doing this, that is
why there has been this unspoken fact about the social media life, where people
like to express themselves as superior to their peers. Additionally, since people
make their digital self as an escape to the harsh realities in life, if they are inferior
in the real world, they think that they might as well try to keep up or at least not
be inferior with their digital peers. Going back to Sherry Turkle’s statement, I
really think it perfectly says that amidst all the perfections we try to set up with
ourselves, we can really only show our true selves to other people when we slip
up or make mistakes.
3. To whom the message is addressed? Why?
- The message is clearly addressed to the people of the current world, because all
of us are probably guilty of caring too much how our digital self looks like to other
digital peers. Especially those who have been addicted so much with these
connections that they make online, that they place their sense of self-worth with
their digital selves. People ought to differentiate the digital world with the real
 world because our selves in the real world is much more important than our
online versions. This is a wake up call for us, reminding us that having a
conversation is so much better than having a connection. That having control of
everything doesn’t really help us and further keeps us in our bubble. We have to
sometimes let things out of control for us to step out of our comfort zone and
make us experience new things.
4. What have you realized from the speech of Sherry Turkle?
- The realizations have been far made before watching the video, but doing so has
made me recall all the experiences that I had before. This video is an incredible
start to make someone open up to the fact that they are not their real selves
online. We should always strive to connect with other people, not through
technological ways but through personal interactions with each other. Our online
versions have been filtered too much that we cannot even say that it is the real
us anymore. There has always been this dilemma in conversing, that when we
speak through online conversations, our fingers easily tap the screens typing
what we WANT to say. But when meeting in real life, almost nothing ever comes
out of our mouths to try and converse with the other person. Watching the video
made me realize that people are too scared to make mistakes and to show these
mistakes to other people. One thing that I realized came to me when she talked
about the elderly woman, who lost a child, talking to a robot in the face of a baby
seal. If I saw this firsthand, I would probably think that it is awesome that the
woman found comfort with the baby seal. But she was right, thinking about it, it
probably would be saddening for me to see that, because we have arrived to the
point where we talk to these robots, these machines that really don’t experience
the life the we live in, so they should not be the ones to comfort us when we feel
down, they don’t know the complexity of the human life. The last thing that I
realized, is that being alone has become a negative word, when it should be not.
People these days don’t know how to live by themselves, that is why they view
solitude as something negative. I think this shows that they are not just happy
with their selves that they cannot even bear the idea of being alone themselves.
The overall video really had great insights and statements that I relate to so
much, that is why I feel that this video should be shared more to our ever-
growing online community to remind themselves to step back once in a while.
5. How were the following classification of communication used by Sherry
Turkle? A. Mode; B. Context; C. Purpose and Style
a. She used all the three modes of communication. Verbal – she spoke to an
audience who was more than willing to listen to her; Non-verbal – adding to
her speech, she used her hand gestures to captivate the audience to listening
to her more, and used facial expressions in order for us to know what
emotions she was feeling with the words that came out of her mouth; Visual –
she used pictures and texts that were relevant to her speech, and most of
these were the highlights of her speech.
b. The context of her speech mostly touched on the Interpersonal aspects
because she talks about how people are lost on having conversations with
other people; and the Extended aspects of our lives because she talks about
the technology which causes us to stray away from having real conversations
but just mere connections with other people in the online world.
c. Lastly, the style of the speech was mostly formal, she was serious with her
speech, but she had to throw in some informal styles like telling the story of
her daughter just to make the conversation light, which is a great choice for
long talks, because having a too much formal speech can be overbearing to
some sometimes.