Ma. Sofia Madeline N. Borja                                             Reaction Paper

(BSBAHRM1-1N) Purposive Communication                    Prof. Asuncion V.
Gabasa

Connected, but alone? by Sherry Turkle

"We expect more from technology and less from each other. Technology appeals
to us most where we are most vulnerable. We're lonely but we're afraid of intimacy."
“People are connected through technology but seem alone because of too much
involvement into it”. In Sherry Turkle’s “connected but alone” she spoke about how
technology has impacted our lives with communication, which is true we are dependent
on technology, we use it all the times. When we left our phones at home we would freak
out and go back just to get it. Our communication with other people has been different
ever since technology has evolved.
She concentrated on what she calls 'the golden effect' and explained how
advanced our technology is and how simple it is to engage in conversation.
Technology takes us from real-time to virtual conversations with social media.
We're together even though we have family and friends, “as Sherry Turkle has said,
while we're not together." We think and say that we enjoy the company of others, but
typically we’re on smartphones and tablets that browse the internet and use social
media.
I accept, too, that people believe "none is listening." I agree. It is funny how
billion people are out there in the world, but we say that nobody listens when we
actually avoid them by sticking to our computers and phones.
"Solitude is where you find yourself."
Well said. I think you could extend this to argue that technology stifles originality
and enforces conformity, because rather than facing their lonely, independent thoughts,
many people reach for their phone to find comfort in the thoughts and speech and ideas
of others.
As we expect more from technology, do we expect less from each other? Sherry
Turkle studies how our devices and online personas are redefining human connection
and communication -- and asks us to think deeply about the new kinds of connection we
want to have.
Technology has always been our scape for boredom when we are lonely.
However, we don’t see that technology is the reason why we are lonely, because we
prefer texting or chatting online rather than communicating with one another. Turkle
points out that if we don’t have the capacity to be alone, we are going to be lonelier.
I believed that technology has ruined our ways of communicating with others.
When a group of people goes out, you would see that they are using their phones a lot
of times instead of being presently with one another. According to Beck,2016, it is now
normal to see a group of people using their phones rather than taking to each other.
For this video, I've realized that it is more important to have a conversation with
friends, having face to face classes and spending time with love ones than exposing to
social medias account such as Facebook, Twitter and other social medias platforms.
Well, in social media specifically Facebook and Twitter, there are a lot of toxicity. You
see a lot of perfectionist, judgements and criticism. However, it also useful in other hand
for us, especially in this time of pandemic. We really need social media in order to
disseminate information. I think the only thing we need to do is use it in a good purpose
and use in a good communication.
It is clear to say that technology has fully impacted our lives, it seems that we
can’t live now without using it or without being incline to it even in a day. Sherry Turkle’s
fully explained and made great points on how technology has affected our ways of
communicating. Even though technology is really useful we should not always be
depending into it. We should remember that Human should control technology and don’t
let technology control us.
People who text more are most likely to be socially awkward. Texting or
messaging is only surface level communication. People who text or message most likely
do not produce any meaningful conversations (Villines, 2014). I agree because
whenever I want a serious talk about an important matter I prefer real-life conversations
rather that texting it to them because when it’s in real life I can express my emotion just
like I want it to be aside from that I will know if the person I am talking about is listening
or not.
I could relate to this too well – Being able to share my thoughts and feelings
online easily, but clam up when away from the screen. Unlike the virtual world, one
cannot simply add in a filler ‘haha’ into an awkward situation, or use emoji to express
our feelings to others. It has caused face-to-face conversation to become less desirable,
when you simply talk online without stress and complexity. We have become more
distant, being controlled by what was supposed to improve our lives. As such, we need
to curb this over-reliance before it is too late, before our relations off the screen vanish
for good.