In Alone Together Professor Sherry Turkle ponders the question ‘why (do) we expect more from technology and less from each other?’ One of Professor Turkle’s most interesting findings concerns why we find technology so interesting and attractive. Seemingly the sound of a phone ringing, the sound of a text or the sound of an email alert lights up the same part of our brain as love does. In other words, it touches our deepest selves. It tells me that I am needed, I am wanted and that someone is thinking of me. This type of connection is only a substitute for real connection: we are fooling ourselves if we think that the sound of a text is one and the same thing as a genuine healthy human relationship. A text can’t beat a good hug!
Electronic connection can distract from a space that ought to be filled with genuine human engagement. As Professor Turkle observes ‘we are moving from conversation to connection’. The busy world of modern technology keeps us distracted from the world of interpersonal communication where we are real to one another, present to one another and supportive of one another.
I often see students in new situations standing awkwardly with hands raised and fingers sliding across screens to distract from the discomfort of loneliness or isolation. To be honest, I’ve done it myself. New technologies are creating their own anxieties rather than reducing them. Technology gives us the ability to communicate across space and time in a way that was unimaginable just a few decades ago. However, it cannot not tell us what to say! Now there’s a source of anxiety if you need one.
Cyberspace cannot compensate for real space. We benefit from chatting to people face to face. – Jonathan Sacks