In the age of advanced technology, the world has grown dependent on the devices that make our lives more bearable and enjoyable. As for its influence on our language, it has introduced new words, changed meanings of others, and created new forms of language and communication. A prominent example of this is the development of abbreviated communication and how it has changed the way we converse with others. In the article “The Flight from Conversation,” author Sherry Turkle talks about how technology and the convenience of texting has made people afraid of engaging a face-to-face conversation as phones help connect us to each other online and present ourselves in the way we want. In Kris Axtman’s “r u online?” The Evolving Lexicon of Wired Teens,”
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With technology, people are able to be with each other and connected to whenever they want to be. By doing so, they are in control of where their attention is directed and who they are affiliated with. Turkle’s article, she describes this as a Goldilocks effect where “we can’t get enough of one another if we can use technology to keep one another at distances we can control: not too close, not too far, just right” (Turkle). People are comforted by the idea of being in touch with many people online, yet they have no desire to learn about them and keep them at a safe, reachable distance for the sake of connection. In addition to controlling our attention, we are presented with the ability to present the self we want to be with the power of editing online (Turkle). With spoken word and conversations, we have little control over how we present ourselves, making messy mistakes and demands that are essential to human relationships within the one chance given to make a good impression. On the contrary, texting and posting allows people to edit their messages, delete their flaws, and retouch their image, portraying themselves as someone they desire to be rather than who they actually are. In other words, people have sacrificed a genuine opportunity to connect and understand each other over an artificial identity that is skimmed over by a wider audience. Because of …show more content…
Social networking allows people to share, almost instantly, moments in time. However, these sites are distracting people from living fully in the moment because their attention and interest is not fully directed to only the experience. They are spending too much time mentally preparing the best way to showcase their moment in a post online, rather than living that experience to the fullest. In Peggy Orenstein’s “I Tweet, Therefore I Am,” she describes a personal experience where she was reading with her daughter, saying “it was the quintessential summer moment, and a year ago, I would have been fully present for it…Instead…I realized excitedly, the perfect opportunity to tweet” (Orenstein 252). Rather than having full focus on reading with her daughter, she consciously withdraws herself, thinking about how to capture the moment in a tweet instead of living the moment. She no longer thinks about the experience with her daughter, but she is more attentive on how to present herself and how other people will view her experience that she partly participated in. However, opposing views claim that it is possible to capture the moment and live it, such as John Dickerson. In his article, “Note to Selfie,” he argues that “the smallest things would become so meaningful, they might even be worthy a few words or a photograph, whatever the method may be” (Dickerson 259). While capturing the moment
With technology, people are able to be with each other and connected to whenever they want to be. By doing so, they are in control of where their attention is directed and who they are affiliated with. Turkle’s article, she describes this as a Goldilocks effect where “we can’t get enough of one another if we can use technology to keep one another at distances we can control: not too close, not too far, just right” (Turkle). People are comforted by the idea of being in touch with many people online, yet they have no desire to learn about them and keep them at a safe, reachable distance for the sake of connection. In addition to controlling our attention, we are presented with the ability to present the self we want to be with the power of editing online (Turkle). With spoken word and conversations, we have little control over how we present ourselves, making messy mistakes and demands that are essential to human relationships within the one chance given to make a good impression. On the contrary, texting and posting allows people to edit their messages, delete their flaws, and retouch their image, portraying themselves as someone they desire to be rather than who they actually are. In other words, people have sacrificed a genuine opportunity to connect and understand each other over an artificial identity that is skimmed over by a wider audience. Because of …show more content…
Social networking allows people to share, almost instantly, moments in time. However, these sites are distracting people from living fully in the moment because their attention and interest is not fully directed to only the experience. They are spending too much time mentally preparing the best way to showcase their moment in a post online, rather than living that experience to the fullest. In Peggy Orenstein’s “I Tweet, Therefore I Am,” she describes a personal experience where she was reading with her daughter, saying “it was the quintessential summer moment, and a year ago, I would have been fully present for it…Instead…I realized excitedly, the perfect opportunity to tweet” (Orenstein 252). Rather than having full focus on reading with her daughter, she consciously withdraws herself, thinking about how to capture the moment in a tweet instead of living the moment. She no longer thinks about the experience with her daughter, but she is more attentive on how to present herself and how other people will view her experience that she partly participated in. However, opposing views claim that it is possible to capture the moment and live it, such as John Dickerson. In his article, “Note to Selfie,” he argues that “the smallest things would become so meaningful, they might even be worthy a few words or a photograph, whatever the method may be” (Dickerson 259). While capturing the moment