why we expect more from technology and less from each other
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In these short essays I have written up issues raised by Sherry Turkle in ‘Alone Together’ in relation to topics regarding my art practice. Sherry Turkle has been researching the individual’s relationship to technology and communication for the past 15 years at the social studies of science at MIT. As a psychologist she researches subjects as part of case studies to prove a theory on our developing relationship with communication technology. Turkle looks at what is compromised by the change in how we communicate in modern society and the impact it has on the self. Turkle presents a society in transformation and predicts a fearful future on how we relate to each other. I am presenting these notes as features of our new society in a short, bullet note form. FEATURES OF BEING ALWAYS ON ‘Networked, we are together, but so lessened are out expectations of each other that we can feel utterly alone’ Bring constantly connected creates an absence in the physical and the present. Public places are now full of people all addressing existing relations and social ties, rather than opening new ones. When people talk on their phones in public they presume that people around them will take them as absent. Their sense of privacy is sustained by the presumption that those around them will treat them not only as anonymous but also as absent.
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notes on Sherry Turkles book ‘Alone Together’
Transcript of why we expect more from technology and less from each other
In these short essays I have written up issues raised by Sherry Turkle in ‘Alone Together’ in relation to topics regarding my art practice. Sherry Turkle has been researching the individual’s relationship to technology and communication for the past 15 years at the social studies of science at MIT. As a psychologist she researches subjects as part of case studies to prove a theory on our developing relationship with communication technology. Turkle looks at what is compromised by the change in how we communicate in modern society and the impact it has on the self. Turkle presents a society in transformation and predicts a fearful future on how we relate to each other.
I am presenting these notes as features of our new society in a short, bullet note form.
FEATURES OF BEING ALWAYS ON
‘Networked, we are together, but so lessened are out expectations of each other that we can feel utterly alone’
Bring constantly connected creates an absence in the physical and the present. Public places are now full of people all addressing existing relations and social ties, rather than opening new ones. When people talk on their phones in public they presume that people around them will take them as absent. Their sense of privacy is sustained by the presumption that those around them will treat them not only as anonymous but also as absent.
Social media turns our lives into performative environments; people address their friends like fans on shared environments like Twitter and Facebook.
This leads to the gameification of social relationships, game rules change peoples behavior.
FEATURES OF MULTI-TASKING AND THE ALCHEMY OF TIME
Mobile connectivity is marketed as becoming more efficient because it speeds up time. Speeding up time and multi-tasking does not actually make you more productive. Takes take longer to complete but the illusion is that you’re doing them faster because you’re doing them simultaneously. It could be argued that tasks done quickly are not done as well, but slow is harder to sell.
‘Educators were quick to extol the virtues of doing many things at once: it was how the future wanted us to think. Now we know that Multi-tasking degrades performance on everything we try to accomplish. We will surely continue to Multi-task, deciding to trade optimum performance for the economics of doing many things at once.’
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FEATURES OF AUTOMATED ENGAGEMENT
‘An email or text seems to have been always on its way to the trash’
Emails do not achieve a resolve between people quicker than a direct phone conversation. Requests are repeatedly send back and forth, slowing down decisive plans and outcomes. We now look at emails as automated requests and frequently refer to them as ‘sorting out’ or ‘shooting off’ when they’re coming from people. This language indicates a desensitized relationship with peers, friends and family.
FEATURES OF ONLINE CONFESSIONS Private and personal expressions make social media an interesting forum. Users find it easier to confessing anonymously to the void of the web. The performance area is protected by anonymity, vastness and control (to turn off the computer). Instead of strengthening existing social ties by relieving the burden to existing friends, they are dropped into the void. These personal comments are crucial for dramatizing this environment. In Twitter Theatre I make entertainment out of these remarks, using them for other purposes. The anonymity shields bother the viewer and the user from constructive discourse.
‘Anonymity does not protect us from emotional investment’
In ‘Alone Together’ Turkle describes a society suffering from the seduction of multiple social outputs. By focusing on what suffers from the use of communication technology she takes a realist, slightly negative approach when compared to other cultural
commentators like Clay Shirky. In contrast Shirky believes the new media systems allow for greater freedom and liberation for individuals. As a psychologist, Turkle focuses on the individual’s wellbeing and social relations rather than what can be produced by online communities. She exposes online confessions sites that highlight the loneliness of people using the Internet to form personal relationships. These obscure sites reflect the transition our society is in as we try to understand and use these devices effectively.
