Fierce Exerpts: Alone Together.

by | Jan 26, 2015 | Fierce Excerpts, Science, Research + Technology

Now watching | https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-ts=1421914688&x-yt-cl=84503534&v=t7Xr3AsBEK4

I was challenged by this TED talk this evening given by Sherry Turkle, Professor, MIT, and author of The Second Self, Life on the Screen, and Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other. I pulled out just a few of her main points below:

Human relationships are rich, and they’re messy and they’re demanding and we clean them up with technology. We sacrifice conversation for mere connection.

By having conversations with each other, we learn how to have conversations with our self. We are limiting our ability to have self-reflection when we limit our conversations.

We are tempted by machines that offer companionship. Have we so lost confidence that we will be there for each other?

We expect more from technology and less from each other.

Technology appeals to us most where we are most vulnerable.

Being alone feels like a problem that needs to be solved.

Our philosophy has become “I share therefore I am”.

When we don’t have the capacity for solitude we turn to other people to feel alive.

We must develop a more self-aware relationship with technology, with others and with ourselves.

We must make room for solitude.

Create sacred spaces at home and reclaim them for conversation.

Our fantasies of substitution have cost us. We need to focus on the many ways that technology can lead us back to our real lives, our own bodies, our own communities, our own politics, our own planet. They need us.

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{ A real interaction with a real beautiful soul. Lucky to have coffee with Jenny from MultiTask Cleaners and hear all about her trip to Europe to meet her new grandson. I have come to know and love her and her husband as they have cleaned our 16 Boardwalk building for 5 years now. Real conversations like this are a gift. }