Technology – tremendous medium of communication and epitome of change. Today’s society, it is completely impossible for us to move every routine without technology. It appears to have a strong influence in people’s daily life basis and their perception of the world. But little did we know that as we use technology as our medium for communication, instead of creating closer bond we are isolating ourselves from each other.
In Sherry Turkley’s speech entitled “Connected but Alone”, she stated several ideas about technology where she uses real life encounter that strongly supports her ideas. One of which is the expectations versus the reality of the internet. The core purpose of the internet upon invention is to use what we learn in the virtual world about ourselves, our identity, to live better lives in the real world. But it ended to maneuver us. We let technology define who we are by who we want to be. Turkley uses the term “Alone Together”. People wants to customize their lives by getting in and out the places in their lives because they want to have control on where they put their attention. We inject ourselves in a situation but we only focused on what captivates our interest. By doing so, we end up hiding from each other even as we are constantly connected.
The second idea that Sherry Turkley introduced is what she called “The Goldilocks Effect”. Across the generations we can see that people can’t get enough of each other if and only if they can have each other in a distance, not too close, not too far, but just right. But the disturbing idea here is that we have our own definition and intensity of “just right” what seems to be just right for a person might be too much or too less to others. Having that right amount of space between a person means having control with the exchange of idea comparing to a conversation which takes place in a real time and we cannot control what we are going to say.
The third idea of the speech is that we sacrifice a conversation for a mere connection. It happens when we try to clean up a rich, messy and demanding human relationship through technology. Over the time, we seem to forget how to express our care for a person through conversation. We must bear in mind that every bit of tweets and texts of communication, even added up together won’t end up as conversation. It will never be as strong as conversation. The more that we distance ourselves from having a conversation, the more chances of having lesser capacity for self-reflection.
We are tempted by machines that offer companionship is another idea that Turkley stated in her speech. People have this habit of assuming that no one cares or no one listen to them. To avoid it, they opt to engage their selves with their social media accounts where they can get full attention of anybody. Having those little phones in our pocket and being connected with our social media accounts seems like having a friend and a companion. Technology appeals to us where we are most vulnerable, and we as people are indeed vulnerable. We are lonely but we are afraid of intimacy. As technology gets more wider and more advanced through the years, through the creation of social media and social gadgets, we are creating a complete illusion of companionship without the demand of friendship. We expect more from technology and less from each other.
Aforementioned ideas, I want to make an emphasis on two ideas. The first one is that we are tempted by machines that offers companionship. I strongly agree with this idea because people nowadays are so obsessed with having the newest trend technology just for the sake of not being excluded. We spend large amount of money on gadgets because we feel that it is the only place where we can express our feelings and everybody listens. By becoming devoted to technology, we become less attached to others. Technology makes us feel belong and appreciated. But truth to be told, it only shows us fake empathy. True feelings cannot be felt athwart the screen. We can never tell if the feelings that was shown to us through screen is true. According to Dr. Katerine John, “Sarcasm strongly exemplifies the limits on social media, one cannot express sarcasm through text or chat, but in face-to- face conversation one can clearly identify sarcasm from tone of voice and facial expressions” As Sherry Turkley said, “by the use of technology as a medium of communication, we get to retouch, we get to edit, we got control of things to show people what we want things to be.”
The second idea that I want to point out is the idea that technology hits us to where we are vulnerable. Technology somehow fills up the missing piece in our lives. Technology aids us with the things that we are not good at. When we want to know something, we browse the internet. With just a flick of finger, we can access all the information that we need. When we are sad, we use applications that brightens up our mood or we socialize using our social media accounts. As years goes by, technology became our necessity. It doesn’t just make our lives easier; it makes our life complete. With the presence of technology, everything seems to be easy for us.
Technology also took a big part in agriculture. Over the years, different machineries were invented in order to increase the productivity and improve the quality of crops in order to sustain the increasing number of the global population. Through technology, innovation and exchange of ideas are easy and can be accessed by any one. By the aid of technology, crops have become more advanced and secure. Significant changes have been made in the irrigation, farming, and planting techniques. One of the biggest boons of technology to agriculture is weather forecast system.
Over the years, technology has been a big part of our lives. Technology grows with us. It also comes up with the demands of the competitive world. It helps us deal with the circumstances that we cannot do alone. It helps us prosper in different aspects of our lives. Through technology we can connect. We can talk to our love ones in distance. But we must bear in mind that there is nothing better than having a face to face conversation. In communication, we can edit and retouch, but in a real conversation, we can recognize and we can discover more.
Reference:
John, D. K. (2016, December 12). Social Networking vs. Face to Face Communication. Retrieved November 5, 2019, from https://www.studymoose.com/social-networking-vs-face-to-face-communication-essay
