Connected But Alone Summary

Sherry Turkle did a TED talk about how technology can affect how we communicate with others, calling it Connected But Alone. She discussed how phones are psychologically powerful to us because we use them to get away from the real world. We use them to hide from each other at the dinner table, at board meetings, and even at funerals because we don't want to feel the grief from a lost one or have a decent conversation with our family and our coworkers that might involve talking about something you don't like to talk about. She uses a term called The Goldilocks Effect which means you don't want to be too close to another but not too far either. People don't like conversations because it is in real time and we can't control what we are going to say. When we text, we can delete choice words or completely start a new conversation. "We expect more from technology than we do from each other." We want technology to be able to understand how we are feeling and to listen to us when no one else is. It is a constant source of attention that will never leave us alone. It gives us the illusion of companionship without the demands of a friendship like understanding how the other is feeling. She wants us to reflect how technology is taking control of our conversations and to develop self awareness with technology and with each other too.