“Connected, but alone?” TED Talk

It has become common today to dismiss the presence of other people around us as we delve deep into our phones. In this TED talk “Connected, but alone” by Sherry Turkle, she digs into the details of how antisocial our society has become. Many people assume that the chatting on devices could easily be associated with the chatting with a person in real time. Turkle argues against this. She states that the small “sips” of information we get from texting can send messages to both parties, but is nothing compared the amount of information gathered through a real time conversation. She brought up the idea of the “Goldilocks effect” where a person would only want other people to know just enough about them. That ability is prominent in social media because of the ability to delete and edit any kind of post you make. Turkle builds on this by stating that social media not only changes how we act, but also who we are as a person. Turkle describes how people are expecting more from technology and less from each other. She backs up this claim by stating that technology targets our weakest points our social lives. The idea of never having to be alone attracts us to technology. Turkle describes that need for technology as an addictive disease that keeps us resorting to technology over and over again. To solve this she poses the idea of abandoning technology, and building real life connections with people. This would allow us to learn about loneliness and solidarity.