“Connected, but alone? -Sherry Turkle

In 1996 when Sherry Turkle appeared in her first Ted Talk she was excited to talk about what we could learn about ourselves from technology. But when she returned in 2012 she feared technology was taking us places we did not want to go. Cellphones especially, she said, are “psychologically powerful” and affect who we are and what we do. This profound effect is leading us to be “alone together”: cellphones and technology allows us to easily connect to one another but only in amounts we can control. Turkle calls this the “Goldilocks effect” which refers to our vigor to connect with one another but not to much, not to little, just the right amount. She observed that cells phones give us three gratifying fantasies: first, we can put attention where ever we want, second, we are always heard, and third, we are never alone. She emphasizes that the feeling of being alone is something people feel they need to fix, but this leads people to not have the ability for solitude. Turkle ends by calling for reflection and conversation about where technology is taking us and asserting that technology is still in its early days which gives us plenty of time to make changed and use it to make this life a “life we can love”.