Logic is Variable: Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other

Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other
Friday, June 1, 2012

With the recent explosion of increasingly sophisticated cell-phone technology and social networking websites like Twitter and Facebook, a casual observer might understandably conclude that human relationships are blossoming like never before. But according to MIT science professor Turkle, that assumption would be sadly wrong. In the third and final volume of a trilogy dissecting the interface between humans and technology, Turkle suggests that we seem determined to give human qualities to objects and content to treat each other as things. In her university-sponsored studies surveying everything from text-message usage among teens to the use of robotic baby seals in nursing homes for companionship, Turkle paints a sobering and paradoxical portrait of human disconnectedness in the face of expanding virtual connections in cell-phone, intelligent machine, and Internet usage. Despite her reliance on research observations, Turkle emphasizes personal stories from computer gadgetry’s front lines, which keeps her prose engaging and her message to the human species—to restrain ourselves from becoming technology’s willing slaves instead of its guiding masters—loud and clear. --Carl Hays

Labels: Books, Clicked This, Social Media

posted by S A J Shirazi @ 10:28 PM,

7 Comments:

At 12:51:00 PM, shahzy said...: Love the Title Too Much...."Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other"
This is really thought provoking Dilemma of Life.
At 12:56:00 PM, Muhammad Sohaib said...: In Aviation industry, the science of metallurgy has significantly proved that with the elapse of time, accidents/incidents are more likely to happen owing to the human failure as compared to the material failure. Meaning thereby, that with the advancement in time, technology is gaining importance/rigidity over human beings.
In the article written by Sir Javed Shirazi, I would sympathetically agree with the Professor Turkle.
Though it is not deniable that 'To err is human' but the statistical analysis provided by various organizations (concerned with human behavior) has suggested that in the present era, the outcomes because of technological failure are quite less as compared to those resulting from human failure.
Nevertheless, I must appreciate the writer as he has given a brief account, in the beginning, on the importance of human relationships and the ways and means to improve them.
At 4:27:00 PM, Asma said...: woww that is so true...its has become rather inevitable that people preffer spending time with machines than human..
At 12:32:00 PM, Anonymous said...: This happens when humans cheat and machine don't.
At 7:11:00 PM, Jalal HB said...: Technology is restricting use of human abilities and we continue to press 1, 2,3 and so on. We more relaint of machines tahn humans. That is sad
At 7:31:00 PM, Shari said...: Well I beg to differ with the MIT science professor Turkle. He might be very learned person but his research is not universal.

Here I am very much social meeting my friends and family but still cherish facebook because it has made my life easier as I can connect with my friends and family abroad.

May be some individual will become salve of technology but we humans as a whole are above this notion.
At 12:11:00 PM, Khalid Javaid said...: There is no doubt that facebook twitter and cell phones have given tremendous boost to communications among human beings. The flipside is that this communication lacks personal touch. We cannot experience the body language associated to one-to-one communication. Words do not build relationships, it is the feelings which are transmitted when we sit face to face even without uttering a single word.