Connected, but Alone?

Summary of the TED Talk

The TED talk that was watched by my IT class was about how texting is making us feel connected but we really aren't. Like, how Mrs.Turkle pointed out texting may connect us virtually but it does not connect us physically, emotionally and/or mentally. I agree with this because I have noticed that whenever I go to my cousin's house he doesn't respond to what I say right away because he is on his phone. It takes a person who is texting about 15 seconds to respond to a question or a formative conversation. This is my theory and is based on my experiences.                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Do you agree that technology changes who we are? Why or why not? Explain whether these changes are positive or negative.

I think that technology changes who we are because we get lost in the virtual world and as I have pointed out before it changes the way we have conversations. It also affects us in a good way because we can text people who are in other countries and communicate with them. In my words, I think technology has a bigger negative effect than a positive one because it changes how we humans are supposed to work in a society with other humans.

What does "Alone Together" mean to you?

"Alone Together" to me means to be physically present in front of each other but not emotionally. You are not emotionally inclined to that person but rather you are sitting/standing with your phone in your hand and texting.

Do you think you are the same person when you text/email/comment that you are in “real life”? Why or why not? Explain.

I do not have a phone so I cannot text and I have never sent an email. Maybe, that is why I feel inclined to my theory that texting disrupts the social environment that we humans made over a period of thousand's of years.

Would you rather text than talk in a conversation?

Obviously, I would talk because I would rather make eye contact with that person rather than look at what they are "writing" in a text. 

Do you agree that technology is a form of companionship? 

In my opinion, it is not a companion because when we are in awkward situations we grab our phone out of our pocket and it all becomes not awkward. Truly, that is not how it works. I do not have a phone and whenever someone is talking to me I tend to listen to them better. If you talk to a phone, well you are not going to get a well thought out reply like you would from a human.

My 2 deep-thinking questions

My 1st question is that "If we didn't have texting but still had every other feature of a phone would we still be this neglectful of other humans?". My final question is that "Do we as humans feel that we are ushering into a new age of no social understanding or knowledge?".     










Here is a URL to a video that I thought was relevant to this topic: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7dLU6fk9QYMy 2 

Do you 

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