Growing Up Tethered Summary

Improved Essays
The essay, “Growing Up Tethered” by Sherry Turkle, seeks to address how the current generation is “tethered” or extremely connected to their cellphones and technology. Sherry Turkle is a professor in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Turkle uses evidence from testimonials and quotes provided by students’ to help the topic become understandable as well as relatable. Since Turkle provided necessary points throughout, the essay was very informative. The essay does not need much correction since Turkle made her argument convincing by using examples and explanations, making the overall concept relatable. It is clear from the concept of the paper that this is addressing a serious issue. …show more content…
From personal experience, I can relate to this topic. At times, I have moments of leisure, but instead of using it to socialize with my peers, I use technology. Turkle then implies that having time alone is crucial to our mental sanity and staying constantly connected to technology is constraining. “They need time to discover themselves, time to think. But technology, put in the service of always-on communication and telegraphic speed and brevity, has changed the rules of engagement with all of this” (430). As Turkle stated before, technology also takes away the thought process. I agree with that statement, but a way to make her point stronger would have been to add how technology causes a decline in critical thinking. Critical thinking tests how people are able to analyze a judgement based on your thoughts. I agree that technology declines the way people think because I have experienced it myself. Instead of sitting down to think about the answer to a critical question, I turn to technology for the answer. Since technology provides us with so much information, we use it as an escape instead of actually taking the time to analyze a question or

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    In the chapter “Growing up Tethered” from the work Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology by Sherry Turkle, she discusses how the use of cellular devices has changed the way that adolescents are raised and that their life experiences are different than prior generations. After talking to a group of teenagers, Turkle discovers that they will risk their lives to stay connected, as some of the teens admit to texting while driving. She also notes that today’s generation is always waiting for an interruption, such as a notification to pop up on their mobile devices. Turkle points out that, thanks to the use of cell phones, teenagers have immediate access to their parents. Most teenagers today call their parents several times a day, inferring…

    • 277 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Technology is having a huge impact on our way of comprehending information. I agree with the point that Nicholas Carr made in the sense that millennials are being lost intellectually as we advance technologically.…

    • 133 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    However, in Sherry Turkle’s “Alone Together” she explains how technology has lowered our interaction skills and has minimized the skills that we need to survive as people Technology has been twisted into ways into benefiting those who abuse it. With technology advancing…

    • 1174 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    He explains that technology alters our way of thinking “The writing person favors logical organization and systematic analysis, not proverbs. The telegraphic person values speed, not introspection. The television person values immediacy, not history. ”(3) That based on the technology a person favors their view point; their social wants and needs change as well.…

    • 1363 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Technology has evolved tremendously in the last decade. It should be a good thing, right? We have the power to perform some of the simplest tasks in the palm of our hand. Having the functions similarly of a computer is what we call a smartphone. However, there are various controversy that debate whether this tech device has impacted us in a positive or negative manner.…

    • 704 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    People look at technology as a source of answers for example instead of going to a doctor we self diagnose ourselves with answers we find on the web. The use of magazines, news papers, credit cards and cash are becoming the old. Because now you can read latest report just on the touch of your phone and holding on to cash and credit cards can be no more cause now just on tap of a bottom you can pay off your phone. Just like Brave New World we look at technology as a…

    • 946 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    A Rhetorical Analysis of "The Flight from Conversation" In my analysis, I will focus on the article "The Flight from Conversation" by Sherry Turkle published in the New York Times Magazine in April 2012. In this article, Turkle explains the consequences of being constantly connected via technology, gives specific examples to help the reader understand difficult concepts, and explores the differences between conversation and communication. The first claim that Turkle makes is that people now are not content being alone because they are used to being constantly connected.…

    • 515 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In “Connectivity and Its Discontents,” Sherry Turkle states that the wide use of technology is affecting the foundation of which people are building their relationships off of. People crave the affection and connection of other people. However, what we believe to be known as “connecting” is completely based off of our technological needs. When we are physically there with another person we tend to doze off and connect with our technology more than we are actually connecting with the person we’re physically with. We have sacrificed conversation for mere connection.…

    • 816 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    While we don’t want to have to give up technology we need to use it wisely and sparingly. She tells us that we need to combat technology; however, we can’t just combat it by setting time to use technology and put away when we are talking. Turkle says the one of the most important things we need to do is reclaim solitude, because with the loss of self-reflection and take ability one thing at a time; people might mistake our impulsiveness as lack of empathy. She claims that we can still reclaim conversation by avoiding the idea that everything is quick and efficient, and that we can redefine how technology works. Finally, Turkle concludes that we need to acknowledge the unintended consequences of using technology and know that we are still resilient enough to recover from our over usage of technology.…

    • 1244 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “The Flight from Conversation” by Sherry Turkle; A Rhetorical Analysis Sherry Turkle, a M.I.T professor in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society as well as being the author of “Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other.” Turkle recently wrote an Op-ed piece entitled The Flight from Conversation that talked about peoples’ inner dependency on technology. By using several examples ranging from a business man so engulfed in his Blackberry that he doesn’t talk to his co-workers to a child who confides in Sherry that “he wishes he could talk to an artificial intelligence program instead of his dad about dating; he said that the A.I. would have so much more in its database” (Turkle, par.17). These shocking…

    • 929 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The article Growing Up Tethered written by Sherry Turkle argues that other than benefiting our lives, technology also has side effects that impair our abilities to truly be independent. She then further explains how this current generation is restricted rather than freed by the technology today. This topic is important because it discusses how we might be together in the sense of collaboration, at which almost everyone is doing it, and becoming what was once considered problematic. Also we are not entirely connected, but at the same time, we are not entirely separated, and thus the readers care because we are included in the issue, and we are affected by the issue. Today’s technology might have given us an eye opening experience, and created the opportunity for us to connect with the rest of the world in a much simpler way.…

    • 1147 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    According to Turkle, if teenagers are overwhelmed with demands then the only way to filter effectively is to keep most communications online and text based. A collection of people make excuses or reasons to take some time off alone, “People 's thoughts turn to technology when they imagine ways to deal with stresses that they see as having been brought on by technology”(Turkle 383). In other words, when a person is stressed or feels like they need to be alone they feel as if technology is what is going to make them feel better. This argument is effective due to the fact that Turkle believes and states that when someone is upset they turn to their phone quick and navigate through the system only because they want to take their mind off a specific topic, not because they just want to surf the web as if they were to do it just for fun. She also believes that the Net gives them time to process their feelings.…

    • 1108 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Many times I have been driving down the interstate, and I find myself checking messages on my phone, and playing around with the music. Meaning every time I pick up my phone to engage in these activities, I am risking my life. After reading “Growing up tethered” written by Sherry Turkle, it really opened my eyes to just put the phone down, and go experience what life has to offer. Sherry Turkle, explains how technology is making us become more sheltered, and not being able to experience the factor of being alone in life. When you become dependent on just yourself and not someone else; that is when you will get to experience what life has to offer.…

    • 791 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Turkle expresses this by using the quote from a 15 year old, “‘ Daddy,’ she said, ‘stop Googling. I want to talk to you’”. The author is trying to make the readers reconsider their use of technology by appealing to their emotional senses. Not only that, this quote can cause them to feel guilty and make them to think twice before going on their phone. After hearing how the little girl felt when her dad was on his phone opposed to listening to her, the reader may realize they have missed out on conversations by not listening and focusing on their phones.…

    • 800 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    With technology advancing every single day, society’s youth has become more and more dependent on electrical devices, especially cell phones. The concept and ideas of the cell phone have drastically changed from when phones were first made mobile. The way that cell phones affected sociology decades ago is much different then the way that cell phones affect sociology in modern days. Cell phones are now a drastic part of the every day lives of millions, even billions, of people world wide. Originally when the cell phone was first created it was a rare commodity as only it was only available to the the rich, but in current generations almost everyone has a cell phone.…

    • 955 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays