Over the past summer, one of my closest friends spent a month in France. She left the day after our graduation and didn't return until mid-July. Therefore, she wasn't able to make it to my or our other two friends' graduation parties. The four of us were very close through all of high school but especially during our senior year. We decided that, even though she was across the world from us, that Reagan would be present at our parties. We would celebrate graduating together. This is when we waited for an interruption. Whenever she would call in from France, the four of us would gather around my iPhone and use FaceTime; this allowed us to be connected even though an interruption took place.
Turkle, once again, makes it seem like technology takes away the intimacy in our lives. But in my case, the interruption gave us a few minutes of intimacy. Without Reagan there at our parties, the day wouldn't have been complete. Missing out on best friends' milestones isn't at the top of the list for our quartet, and technology kept our connection alive. Even if this meant that our faces were tucked away into a screen for a few moments, no one at the party minded. Our company thought that it was wonderful for the four of us to stay in contact while one was away. The even more wonderful part was that the conversation could happen immediately instead of Reagan having to hear about our parties after the fact.
Overall, Turkle is heartless and thinks we're all POSs who cannot connect with the people in front of us at the same time as staying in contact with those further away.
I have to agree with you. During my senior year of high school, I was lucky enough to go to the State Thespian Festival. On the last day, the main actor and some of the other members had to leave for a show choir competition. They weren't able to be there at the award ceremony. If it were not for FaceTime, they wouldn't have been there for the troupe's big win. Turkle spends too much time focusing on the negatives of technology, when there are actually positives as well.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you- technology is what has kept my sister and I close even though she lives in Hawaii. I think it's awesome that she and I can FaceTime in the evenings while we do things around the house (like cooking dinner) because it helps lessen that gap that is felt in our everyday lives whenever we're not with each other. We're each other's best friends, and being able to see my sister's face through my iPhone rather than every 6 months is super comforting.
ReplyDeleteGood response to the prompt. I even think your slightly hyperbolic response to Turkle at the end (a bit unfair, right?) works since this is a blog post can you can just be a wee bit less formal.
ReplyDeleteI really agree, and I like that you showed a real life situation in where Turkle's perceptions of technology do not show the REALITY of how it is used in social situations.
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