Ted Talk Con Nected But Alone Analysis

Fareeha Ahmad Professor Wilson English 200-E March 3, 2017

Technology Disadvantages

Sherry Turkle is a psychologist, writer and professor of the Social Studies of Science and

Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Turkle spent her time doing research on mobile communications of technology and interviewed different age groups about their ‘plugged’ in lives. Turkle presented her first Ted talk in 1996 after she was recognized for her book that discussed the idea that there is new life on the internet. She is back to give another Ted Talk: Con nected, but Alone? in 2012 except this time she is advocating against too much technology usage. Turkle’s main argument is that technology is “taking us places we don’t want to go.” In

Conversation in a couple of words and emoticons is not a correct representation of human interaction. True emotions and feelings are not understandable in just a few words. Turkle claims small bits of information don’t add up to a whole conversation, yet the short text from her daughter “Mom, you will rock” before her TED talk summed up everything for her and she loved receiving it. This is again making her argument ineffective because she is going against her original stance, which is that too much technology distances us from real meaningful conversations. She claims technology is distancing us and leading us to trouble with how we relate to each other and ourselves but fails to give ideas of how to change that. Turkle says in her talk “We need to learn to have conversation with ourselves” but doesn’t mention how that will help us to better connect to ourselves and to each other without the

Sherry Turkle, a psychologist, writer, and professor, studies different age groups and their lives on the internet. Technology was the new big thing in 1996 when Turkle gave her first TED talk, but in 2012 she is back, except this time she is talking against the dominance of technology. Turkle blames technology for many reasons: lack of real communication, distance from each other, and feelings of isolation. However, in her talk she fails to provide evidence of how controlling humans are over technology. Turkle’s argument is built on the idea that too much technology is bad for us, yet she shows evidence of having a strong bond with technology herself. She goes on and on to talk about the disadvantages too much technology usage brings with it but doesn’t reflect and provide audience with benefits decreased technology in our lives. In all, Turkle’s argument against technology most likely failed to motivate audience to unplug themselves from technology for the better. She should’ve provided alternate options that would give the audience something to consider when they would be on their phones for too long. Turkle’s argument of overuse of technology will have a minor impact on the audience's technology