A Reaction Paper on Connected, but alone?

Technology has impacted on our lives very greatly. We are dependent on technology. We use it at all times. When our phones our left at our home, we would freak out and go back home just to get it. In Sherry Turkle’s “Connected but alone?,” she spoke about how technology has impacted our lives with communication. Our communication with other people has been different ever since technology has evolved.

People prefer texting or messaging rather than communicating with one another. Technology has always been there for us whenever we are lonely. However, we do not see that technology has cause us to be lonely. Turkle points out that if we do not have the capacity to be alone, we are going to be lonelier. Technology has ruined our ways of communicating with one another.

I believed that technology has ruined our ways of communicating with others. When a group of people goes out, you would see that they are using their phones instead of being there presently with one another. There is even a word for that situation and it’s “phubbing”—a combination of “phone” and “snubbing.” It is now normal to see a group of people using their phones rather than talking with one another (Beck, 2016). People also now prefer texting and messaging nowadays unlike before they are talking with one another.

People who text more are most likely to be socially awkward. Texting or messaging is only surface-level communication. People who text or message most likely do not produce any meaningful conversations (Villines, 2014). I agree that messaging and texting is only surface-level communication. Whenever I want to talk about something, I prefer real-life conversations rather than texting it to them because when it’s in real-life you will know whether the person is really listening or not.

Technology has made us dependent; we always need someone or something to be there for us. Whenever we are alone, we feel anxious. To get rid of the anxious feeling, we tend to go to other people and use them. We do not really appreciate their presence. Being alone and loneliness is not the same; we always confuse those two together. I am guilty of being one of those people who go to other people because I do not want to be alone. However, we need to be able to handle the capacity of being alone.

We are always distracted from our life; we could never fully be present in our life. Technology is one of the distractions in our life. To fully be able to handle being alone, we need to be fully be part of our experience and in the real world (Arndt, 2018).”We’re lonely but we’re afraid of intimacy,” this is a quote from the video. I agree to this we are afraid of being too close with people. There are a lot of reasons why we are afraid of being intimate with others.

However, there is this one reason that I feel that all others can relate and that is that we have experienced of losing someone and we do not want that feeling again to happen. We also do not show our true self to others; we are afraid of what they may think of us. In order for us to be less afraid of connecting with others, we need to accept ourselves and show them our authentic selves (Sharif, 2016).

It is clear to say that technology has fully impacted our lives. Sherry Turkle’s “Connected but alone?” was a great talk. She fully explained and made great points how technology has affected our ways of communicating. Even though technology has affected our communications with another, let us still have good and meaningful talks with other people. Let us also not be dependent on technology. Technology will not always be there for us; we need to be able to have solitude within us.

REFERENCES

• Arndt, K. (2018, April 8). The Fear of Being Alone. Retrieved September 2, 2018, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/hut-her-own/201804/the-fear-being-alone
• Beck, J. (2016, June 14). Ignoring People for Phones Is the New Normal. Retrieved September 2, 2018, from https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/06/ignoring-people-for-phones-is-the-new-normal-phubbing-study/486845/
• Sharif, Z. (2016, April 22). How to Connect with Others and Feel Less Alone in the World. Retrieved September 2, 2018, from https://tinybuddha.com/blog/love-relationships-blog/connect-others-feel-less-alone-world/
• Villines, Z. (2014, February 21). How Texting Changes Communication. Retrieved September 2, 2018, from https://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/texting-teens-adults-communication-0726126