Analysis Of Alone Together, By Sherry Turkle

Alone Together, by Sherry Turkle, is a book that discusses the consequences of involving technology in our lives. In it, Turkle provides content that is enlightening and surprisingly simple. However, it is also unnecessarily repetitive, making it boring. The main ideas of the book are enlightening because they provide reason to many of the observations and social stigmas present today that were not thought to be easily explainable. For example, it is widely accepted that children growing up today are much more involved with technology. The youth’s daily interactions with cell phones, computers, and video games are all proof of this. However, Turkle goes beyond a simple confirmation of this trend. She provides evidence of it and explains why …show more content…
For instance, she claims that technology users find comfort in having their cell phones as it would allow for them to get help immediately if something were to go wrong. However, when they have to leave behind a cell phone, they no longer feel as safe. Similarly, Turkle reveals that employees with work phones are constantly checking their email on them. If they are left without access to the device, they feel anxious due to the chance that they could be missing vital information or are required to be “on call”. Therefore, they have developed a sense of comfort associated with using this technology. But in reality, technology is convincing these users that they are “connected” to others through their phones, not through face to face interaction. For this reason, isolation has come to be seen as whenever the phone is gone and the person is cut off from technological “connection”. However, disconnecting from technology is actually a rare opportunity to truly connect with people without distraction. On the other hand, there have been noticeable efforts from society to overcome the point that Turkle makes. For example, the explosion of yoga and the increasingly popular method of disconnecting from technology in order to study reveal that users of technology are willing to explore the positive benefits of isolation from technology. For …show more content…
Currently, it appears that people would overwhelmingly become adjusted to being connected to others only through technology if left to their own devices. Should this happen, society would lose one of the skills that makes us human, complex speech. With a decrease in genuine, face to face interaction with other people, users of technology would witness a slow decline in their ability to communicate. They would become less able to utilize its nonverbal aspects, tone and body language, because they would no longer have the chance to use them. Fortunately, humanity is not doomed to this fate. As previously noted, many users are searching for ways to escape the hold that technology has over them. They have come to find their own approach to harmoniously living a life that incorporates technology with true togetherness and isolation. In order for the rest of society to experience this benign coexistence, we, the users of technology, must start putting increased pressure on one another to take the first step away from our computers, from our phones, or even from our robotic companions. This time separate from technology offers a rare opportunity to practice the skills that technology deprives us of. Additionally, it allows for people to experience the benefits of self-reflection and true solitude. Hopefully, once a large enough portion of the