Friday Snow Day: Family Life in the Hands of Technology

When I was younger, my parents were constantly traveling because their jobs took them all over the country. Many times they would have to leave my sisters and me behind because they couldn’t pull us out of school and because there were some places you just couldn’t take 13, 12, and 10 year olds. They would always call us when they got to the airport, yet again when they landed, and once more when they arrived at the hotel.

When my parents had to leave for their jobs, often time they would both be gone because they worked together, so technology let me keep in touch with them, even though we were hundreds of miles apart. Technology allowed them the comfort of not having to miss out on those precious moments of my sisters and mines childhood. I don’t think the three of us minded that our parent’s faces were on portable screens, because at least it meant that they were there with us, if only through some technological portal.  

Turkle looks down at technology, because she thinks it takes away the intimacy we would have, if there wasn’t a screen in front of our faces. She thinks that being connected to parents takes away a young adults independence. But because of technology, my parents can stay in touch with everyone and make sure that we are safe and sound, whether by using skype, calling, or texting. Technology strengthens our family ties because it allows my family be together, even though we may all be in different states. It affords us the knowledge that if we need one another, we can have them on their way with just a swipe of a finger. It doesn’t hinder our independence, because if I don’t want to talk to my parents, I can make the conscious choice not to. But I have the option to talk to them, to let them know that I’m okay, so they don’t have to live in fear of what could happen to me in an age where violence has become the norm. So overall I think Turkle is wrong that technology makes us less than what we could be without it, because for cases like mine, it is the only way to be able to see, talk to, and hear from the ones that I love.