Summary Of Sherry Turkle's Growing Up Tethered

Disconnected In the reading Growing Up Tethered by Sherry Turkle she describes her experience of talking to high school students about being more connected to a cellphone than the world around them. I completely agree cellphones and other devices that keep us connected via web, text or call causes us to lose necessary physical interactions with other people. So much attention can be drawn from cellphones without having to leave the house, some people have friends all over the country that they may have never met. Cellphones give a sense of popularity being able to talk to people and express feelings without being face to face gives some people more confidence. Turkle states “but they also view it as one might the weather: to be taken for granted, …show more content…
Young adults or teenagers use their phone whenever they encounter a problem such as being lost or not knowing how to spell a word, just simply google it. Young adults are in a critical stage of life where decision making is vital and without the proper teaching or physical interaction some important skills can be missed. I agree with Turkle when she says, “Today’s adolescents have no less need than those of previous generations to learn empathic skills, to think about their values and identify, and to manage and express feelings (430).” Physical interaction is important at a young age to be able to know how to talk to others about certain problems and to address problems in real life is necessary. Teenagers should have hobbies and socialize to understand what they like and what they want to do in life by experiencing different aspects of …show more content…
When I turned thirteen I got my first phone it didn’t do much but slide up to text or call and the first thing my mother told me is that if she calls my cellphone that I better pick up the first time. I went from having freedom and being independent to my mother being able to contact me or if I ran into trouble I could contact her and she could take care of my problem. Parent feel as if they should be able to get in touch with their children whenever they want and teenagers believe they need their personal space and need to be left alone when they leave. Turkle states, “Parents want their children to answer their phones, but adolescents need to separate (431)”. Teenagers even though out going and social whether it be online or not still need space, they need time to themselves for many reasons it could be school or something personal. I agree with needed space, teenagers these days are stressed with a lot going on and parents can add to the stress. I think text messages are more efficient because they can be answered and checked more discretely as to calls they are interruptive and spontaneous but I also believe if there is a call that it is urgent and must be answered. I believe there could be a middle ground between texting and calling that could be beneficial to adults