Response Essay Picture this, you’re sitting in a chair at a table and an unknown stranger approaches and asks if they can sit by you. Out of an act of kindness you say of course, and so they sit, but instead of communicating with one another you both sit there for a little awkwardly and then proceed to pull out your phone to check your feed. I too find myself guilty of doing this, but why do so many people do it? It never really dawned on me that this is out of the ordinary until I read Sherry Turkle’s short story called “The Flight from Conversation”. After reading Turkle’s short story I soon found out how this became about. We are now attached to our electric device and we lean upon it in uncomfortable situations, it’s a generational
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Sherry Turkle states that, “we base our whole day around one of these devices, we send emails to fellow co-workers, schedule board meetings, and even tell each other what’s going on off of these devices.” Making it a requirement to own some sort of electronic device to be able to receive the information needed. Whereas before people would just go to the other cubical or office and ask that individual for the information, or needed date for an event. This has caused us to not think for ourselves and let the phone or other electric device inform us on important events and thus causing us to be dependent on them. While technology is becoming a necessity, Turkle also points out that “our flight from conversation can mean diminished chances to learn skills of self-reflection” (51). When logging onto apps such as Facebook or twitter, the first thing that pops up is “what’s on your mind,” but then giving you only a limited amount of characters that you can use restricting what you can say on how you really feel. Regardless people still post, but they are not always able to post what they really mean, or how they mean it, or maybe not even all of what they feel. The poster gains a little bit of closure on their topic for being able to express how they feel, but are not able to hear back immediate response, or receive input from someone who has no relevance to …show more content…
Very few people actually like to call and just talk with someone, it’s easier to just pick up the phone and send out a simple text asking how they are doing, or what is up. In Turkle’s short story, she states that “a sixteen year old boy who relies on texting for almost everything told her that someday, someday he hopes to learn how to have a regular conversation, but not today” (50). Personally I find this comical, this sixteen year old boy can’t fathom having an actual conversation face to face. Later in Turkle’s short story she states that another student wishes that he could talk to an artificial intelligence program instead of going to his father. He says that the AI would be more helpful and have more experience with their database that they have, than what his father would have from experience. This is just how paralyzed we, as a society, are when it comes to
Sherry Turkle states that, “we base our whole day around one of these devices, we send emails to fellow co-workers, schedule board meetings, and even tell each other what’s going on off of these devices.” Making it a requirement to own some sort of electronic device to be able to receive the information needed. Whereas before people would just go to the other cubical or office and ask that individual for the information, or needed date for an event. This has caused us to not think for ourselves and let the phone or other electric device inform us on important events and thus causing us to be dependent on them. While technology is becoming a necessity, Turkle also points out that “our flight from conversation can mean diminished chances to learn skills of self-reflection” (51). When logging onto apps such as Facebook or twitter, the first thing that pops up is “what’s on your mind,” but then giving you only a limited amount of characters that you can use restricting what you can say on how you really feel. Regardless people still post, but they are not always able to post what they really mean, or how they mean it, or maybe not even all of what they feel. The poster gains a little bit of closure on their topic for being able to express how they feel, but are not able to hear back immediate response, or receive input from someone who has no relevance to …show more content…
Very few people actually like to call and just talk with someone, it’s easier to just pick up the phone and send out a simple text asking how they are doing, or what is up. In Turkle’s short story, she states that “a sixteen year old boy who relies on texting for almost everything told her that someday, someday he hopes to learn how to have a regular conversation, but not today” (50). Personally I find this comical, this sixteen year old boy can’t fathom having an actual conversation face to face. Later in Turkle’s short story she states that another student wishes that he could talk to an artificial intelligence program instead of going to his father. He says that the AI would be more helpful and have more experience with their database that they have, than what his father would have from experience. This is just how paralyzed we, as a society, are when it comes to