Before telecommunications, people were known to have more developed social and interaction skills. With so much inventions every year, individuals are losing their abilities to communicate with each other in person. In “Alone Together” Sherry Turkle, explains how technology has reached a new level into invading the personal and intimate lives of people. While in “Bumping into Mr. Ravioli” Adam Gopnik, describes how technology has given people the excuse to tell others of how busy and unavailable they are to others.
Both essays evaluate how technology has been able to change on how technology is being used as a way to occupy oneself and reduce the authentic values in the lives of people. Media creates a barrier between individuals structuring a grid of busyness where people are being forced into projecting their feelings onto objects creating a facade of control over their own authentic life. To begin with, with the so much media changing into more realistic part of human lives, technology has taken a new level into the world making it easier to accept machines than people.
As each invention evolved into a simpler device, adding an extra barrier to separate human interaction. As Gopnik explains, “Every device that has evolved from the telegram shares the same character. E-mails end with a suggestion for a phone call, faxes with a request for an e-mail, answering machine messages with a request for a fax. All are devices of perpetually suspended communication” (Gopnik 157). With all the communication available nowadays, it is simple to talk to a person and not have an association with them.
With devices being able to make it easier to contact one another, it makes easy to take information needed from another person without the need to make a personal connection with them. Without any deep relationship or connection with other human beings, it pushes them into a state of isolation. Being secluded from others forces the person to have an intimate level with their android. That individual becomes extremely dependent on their android. Turkle express “As we instant-message, e-mail, text, and twitter, technology redraws the boundaries between intimacy and solitude. ” (Turkle 272).
As people there always need to be someone or something to relay on, and now its their devices and technology. It has formed a wall around our interaction skills, making it harder to be comfortable enough to speak face to face with others. Technology has made it easier to exclude others physically from individual lives while having them there virtually. Taking away the authentic feel on having a deep rooted connection with a physical human being. Furthermore, our own devices have become a huge part of our lives that most people consider it as not just an extension of the person themselves but also a part of their family.
The device hold information about the life of the owner but can also solve any problem that they would need. The android has become that friend that you relay on more than an actual human being. Turkle exemplifies that “Digital connections and the sociable robot may offer the illusions of companionship without the demands of friendship. ” (Turkle 263). With progresses of technological research, automatons have been built to offer the idea of friendship. It is meant to be there to give comfort and take away the feelings of loneliness.
However, the android takes away the feelings of solitude but the it does not require anything back, it does not request for the person to comfort the machine Technology was not meant to take the place of a human being, it was made to simplify the life of the populaces. Technology has not just given people a virtual friend but also taken away time to spend time with realistic friends.
Gopnik epitomes on how technology has distracted us from authentic lives, “”Oh, you know… just… bumping into Charlie Ravioli,” eaning, just bouncing from obligation to electronic entreaty, just spotting a friend and snatching a sandwich, just being busy, just living in New York. ” (Gopnik 160). With the evolution of technology, it has become an obsession to always have any time of technology on hand. The idea of an authentic life does not fully exist in the idea of this new time and age. Technology has taken so much of each individuals’ time that they tell others whom they care about that they are too busy for them. The digital equipment that is us traction, it makes it a difficulty to live authentic lives.
The android that is carried in everyone’s pockets gives people the busyness and the interference to avoid seeing others. The electronic devices have been created to act as a friend or companion, being there for the owner when needed. However, the device acting as a friend takes away the reality that it is an excuse not to leave a comfort area and see physical friends. Societies are isolating themselves from going out into the world and interacting with others when they tell themselves they have all of that on a small and simple device.
Additionally, it is known that if a person goes without years of interaction they become to appear insane, or lose touch with reality. It is the simple conversation with another person, or the deeply emotional exchanges that helps keep everyone balanced and centered. When there is a face to face communication between two people, there is eve contact and slight inputs to assure the others that they are following along. However, with so many people always on their phones or any other type of device, the simple conversations between two people no longer exists.
Gopnik analyzes, “It introduced something into the world which remains with us today: a whole new class of communications that are defined as incomplete in advance of their delivery. ” (Gopnik 157). With the new form of communication, that enables people to reach others in a matter of seconds, it has taken away the logic of setting a time to meet in person. The development of technology was made to bring everyone around the world together, not push everyone apart. It was invented to fill in the gaps of long distances and the difficulty of not seeing someone as much as one wanted.
Technology has left civilization incomplete and unable to converse without a screen. Hiding behind a screen is like an armor to protect people from the rest of the world. Turkle explores that “we remake ourselves and our relationships with each other through our new intimacy with machines. ” (Turkle 265). With each device that is used and bought, a bond is being formed on how the person is. Each device knows the owners on a level on intimacy and privacy that other people do not know about. The owners project their feeling onto the androids in order to have the illusion of authentic lives, making them selves with so much responsibilities so they have no need to meet with other people.
Technology has reached a new level of intimacy between man and machinery, a new level where one does need the appearance of other human beings but they simplicity of their devices. As noted, technology has forced human beings into believing that they live normal busy lives when in reality they are being pushed into seclusion and considering the thought living intimately with androids. Society as a whole has become so dependent on their gadgets that they no longer believe into stepping out in the world and talking to complete strangers in front of them.
However, given a screen they will form thousands of different connections with strangers across the seas. Technology has taken a toll of civilization, making it easier to become a hermit in a home, isolated from any one else. There is a disconnection, a gap that was torn apart with the help of technology, that makes it fearful to approach a person and introduce themselves. Its seems as we progress with technological research, we decline in human interaction and standard communicational skills.
