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Technology as Soma
As I finish Alone Together by Sherry Turkle I began to realize our society has become too lazy to have a thorough discussion, instead we take shortcuts like texting, etc. When was the last time you actually called someone and actually had an epiphany or an interesting conversation. Like Turkle once said, “We expect more from each other but technology is blocking our way.” Even though technology has a beneficial factor it has also ruined our social skill. For example when was the last time you actually left your cell phone at home on purpose or went a day without texting, snapchatting, facebook messaging. I know for a fact that my phone will and always stay in my pocket, has anyone ever went a day, week, or month without their phone? We have become so attached to our phones that we forget the idea that we can still talk to someone in person or even on the phone. Do you think that cellphones are actually our soma?
I don't believe our cellphones are our somas. Even though we constantly use and need to have our cellphones they don't change our emotions and make us happy like Somas would. I would say our cellphones are more of a habit we can not break. We always need it by our side and when it beeps that you got a text immediately you check it. We have gotten so comfortable with our cellphones that now we don't even think about checking our phone it just happens. Think of how many times you check your cellphone when you know it didn't ring for a text or a call but it as just habit or just in case. We desire the need to used technology so badly we don't even notice that it takes over our daily lives.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with what Justin's statement about society being dependent on cell phones. I, myself personally is dependent on my cell phone. I do feel like having this technology advantage has ruined our social skills and has a huge impact on kids today. My parents always say "back in our days we didn't have any cellphones, we would have to walk to our friends house if we wanted to talk". Cell phones do have their benefits. For example, you wouldn't have to walk to your friends house to talk, you would just need to text or call them, where as for back in the day, you had to walk to their house. Society now is very much dependent on cell phones, but the bad thing about cell phones is that we spend so much time checking our phones, and checking the latest updates that we forget what is really going on around us. Society has totally lost respect and proper social skills. As Rachel said, technology as taken over our daily lives, is there a way we can stop this?
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