Purc - Reaction Paper

A REACTION PAPER ABOUT
SHERRY TURKLE’S “CONNECTED, BUT ALONE?”
The developments that happened with technology highly influenced and impacted our lives
right now. It made our lives easier and faster. Transportation, communication, and a lot of other things
are a lot more accessible than before. But the method of communication is one of the most influenced
aspects of our society and lives. The advancement of technology and the use of social media
drastically changed the way we communicate and build connections with the people around us. We are
actually living in a world full of screens. I actually agree with the stand of Sherry Turkle regarding this
topic, she made me realized that we are too foolish that we end up allowing these devices control and
consume us. Sherry Turkle said that these little devices that we have are so psychologically powerful.
To the point that they do not only change what we do but also change who we are. This line from her
gave an impact that made me realize the situation that we currently have in our society.
The advancement of technology and the invention of social media changed how we
communicate and connect with the people around us. Yes, we are still connected, but does it help to
ease the feeling of loneliness? Does it help us to build stronger and more genuine relationships with the
people around us? For me, the answer is not at all. Just like what Sherry Turkle said in her talk, we’ve
become familiar with a new way of being “alone together.” We are physically together but do we give
our full attention to the person or people in front of us? We are together, but we create our own little
world with gadgets and our social media accounts. People prefer texting or chatting rather than
communicating with one another face-to-face. We already forgot the essence of having a real and
sincere conversation without facing these little screens. We already forgot how important it is for us to
relate with each other and how we should also relate to ourselves. We are connected to thousands or
even millions of people on Earth using technology and our social media accounts, that we actually
thought we will feel less lonely, but unexpectedly, our gadgets and social media accounts caused us to
feel lonelier.
Sherry Turkle stated that we become overly dependent on technology and for me, that is
actually the bitter truth that some of us cannot even accept. It is undeniably evident when we need
someone to be there when we feel unhappy and alone, whenever we have a problem, and even
when we are in a good mood. We are overly dependent on technology. It is undeniably evident
when we need someone to be there when we feel unhappy and alone, whenever we have a
problem, and even when we are in a good mood, we automatically get these devices than sharing
them personally with the people around us. We end up hiding from each other even if we thought
that we are constantly connected to one another. We are afraid of having a face-to-face
conversation because we are afraid to show who we really are, we are afraid to made mistakes in
front of these people, and we are afraid to be judged. I agree with what Sherry Turkle said that we
end up hiding from the people around us and also end up forgetting who we really are. We want to
present ourselves to what people expect to see from us and with technology we get the ability to
edit, delete, and even retouch what we have. We end up being contented with the mere connection
that we have with the people in our social media accounts than having a genuine conversation with
them in real life, we get afraid to have an intimate, strong, and genuine relationship with them.
Sherry Turkle made us realized that we are being consumed by technology and by the social
media accounts that we are using, she made us look back to how we communicate and build a
relationship with the people around us. I was so amazed by everything that she said, she made me
look back to how connect with the people around me and also on how I relate to myself. She
explained how the advancement of technology has changed and affected our ways of
communicating. We cannot deny the fact that technology made our lives easier and faster, but we
should not also forget that we should not be consumed by these gadgets, that we should not overly
depend on them. We should always remember that there is nothing compared to having real and
sincere conversation face-to-face, there is nothing compared to the freedom of not being
surrounded by these little screens. Let us not forget the importance of being able to relate with other
people and being able to relate within ourselves.

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A REACTION PAPER ABOUT

SHERRY TURKLE’S “CONNECTED, BUT ALONE?”

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