Connected, but Alone?

     Sherry Turkle is the Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She wrote Alone Together in 2012, where she discussed the way technology is changing how we communicate and gave a TED talk on the subject as well. I haven't read her book, but I did watch the TED talk and I thought she raised some interesting points. She stressed the importance of being mindful with our consumption of technology, and its affect on how we communicate and how we see ourselves in the world. 

    She used the example of people using their phones at funerals to hide from their grief. Too often we forget that in order to process strong emotions, we must sit with them and feel them. Our phones kind of act like a digital pacifier. Personally, I find myself using my phone more often in times of stress. It can feel good to turn off your brain for a bit, and maybe that can be beneficial for the short term, but long term, there is no way out of strong emotions such as grief but through.

    I really liked the emphasis she placed on learning to be okay with being alone. We can't have effective relationships with others without self reflection. Perhaps this is why social anxiety is so prevalent today, perhaps if we spent a little more time reflecting, we could get past the initial anxiety stage of over analyzing our social interactions and move forward to a place of acceptance for ourselves. 

Check out Sherry's TED Talk here:

https://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_connected_but_alone?language=en