Professor Andrew Libby
Basic Composition 01:355:100
September 30th, 2016
Communication and barriers
Communication is an essential connection that links between humans, and without it people would not survive. Naomi Klein in her chapter “Fences of enclosure, windows of possibility” and Sherry Turkle in her chapter “The flight from conversation” talk about barriers and how they affect us and our society. Barriers could be virtual fences, physical fences, social media, miscommunication or even a device. Communication can be done in so many ways, but not all ways are healthy to use often. Klein and Turkle seem to have interesting perceptions on communication, where Turtle sees technology as a disconnecting us and Klein seem …show more content…
Because of the feeling we get when we isolate ourselves from the real world and start communicating through texts we believe that we are doing well socially. When the truth is that by text you are editing every word you say, thinking everything twice and revising texts, tweets, status before hitting send which does not improve you at all. Texting takes away even more from your social skills while you still thinking the you are doing better. Turkle calls her device “my tiny god” (24). Which can be seen as the people worshipping technology and forgetting that it is not what it seems to be and that it is taking over out face to face social communication. People replaces face to face conversation or talking on the phone with texting because the tend to give them more control of their emotions. Turkle explains the feelings that people experience when they text that makes them feel more comfortable than actual conversations saying “Three gifts from a benevolent genie: that you’ll never have to be alone, that your voice will always be heard, that you can put your attention wherever you want it to be. And that you can slip in and out of wherever you are to be wherever you want to be, with no social stigma” (33). It shows how these devices create a new set of social mores that allow for a split …show more content…
However she explain how when she interviewed some kid and asked about how he feels when people look down their phones when they are sitting together and he says “It makes me feel terrible—I’d never say that, but it does. I feel I’m being put on pause. It’s bad when I do it to other people, but then I don’t really think of how they feel when I do it to them” (42). Which shows how it is an actual fact that technology is a main factor in destroying our social skills and disconnecting us from each other based on actual events and situations that she talks about it through her interviews with other people 's experiences with technology and social life. She tries to make her argument clear at some points saying “So, my argument is not anti-technology. It’s pro-conversation” (26). Using our devices let us think twice about a text before we send it for example you might type “I miss you” then you erase and change it to something else less emotional as “long time no see” and this is when a face to face conversation becomes more valuable. Actual conversations are instant where hiding emotions is not as easy, misunderstanding does not take place as much and seeing each other 's face expressions plays a great part in understanding the person in front of you unlike on the phone. Turkle interviews someone and he says that talking on the phone is “too