PA10 – Steven Miller & Talia Lerol

Sherry Turkle, Can You Hear Me Now?

While Sherry Turkle makes many points in her Forbes article, her main thesis is that technology, specifically mobile communications technology, has denatured humanity. She posits that with our fast paced world of mobile communications technology we are neither truly ever alone nor truly with other people. We are losing ourselves and our sense of what is real. Turkle makes several lines of attack in this argument.

Firstly, Turkle points out that many people rely on technology to help manage their complex lives. The irony of this is that by increasing the efficiency by which we deal with our communications, we are capable of dealing with more, ultimately making our lives more complex, not less. In a world before smart phones and laptop computers, a person was unreachable outside of the office. Now we are always reachable, and expected to be so. This is destroying time for a person to focus, uninterrupted.

Next, Turkle turns to the development of the adolescent self, and the idea of being on your own. She points out that nearly all children nowadays have mobile phones, and are a call away from either their parents or a friend. While many parents see this as a feature, not a bug, Turkle wonders what is to come of a whole generation who has never been completely on their own. How independent can they be if they always have a fall back option?

Finally, Turkle argues that we are losing perspective on what is real, what is here and now. She recalls a student who felt like they were being “put on pause” by their friend when they took a phone call while the two walked down the street, talking. Why does the phone call take priority over the immediate and real-time conversation? Would you interrupt a phone call to start talking with a friend standing near by? No, but we do the reverse frequently.

Roz Chast’s New Yorker cartoon, immediately following Turkle in They Say, I Say reframes Romeo and Juliet as a series of instant messages. Chast seems to be making the point that, although stripped of the Shakespearean language, teenage relationships are eternal and will mold to new communication forms. To this, I believe, Turkle would argue that much is lost in an electronic courtship. Relieved of secrecy and intimacy, is Romeo and Juliet still a compelling tale?

We may be more connected than ever before, but are often more removed from other people’s humanity than ever before.