Alone Together: Me, my Android, and I

Sherry Turkle, a professor at MIT, has studied our reciprocal relationship with technology--how we change technology and how it changes us.  This article is about her new book, "Alone Together," which explores our relationship with technologies like smart phones and social networking.  Turkle presents the idea that these technologies have the potential to be very beneficial to the way businesses are run or the way we keep in contact with other people.  The problem is when they take the place of real interactions.  We're alone but we're connected to many people through Facebook--so that means we're having meaningful exchanges and bonding with these people, right?  Turkle also mentions that many people seek validation and approval through how many people have commented or "thumbed-up" their Facebook status, or how many text messages they get daily.  Because of this need to constantly connected, "we're losing a capacity for autonomy both intellectual and emotional."  This is a pretty scary thing, considering that we need a sense of autonomy to be fully functioning, emotionally intelligent adults.

I'm excited to read Turkle's book--when I have time after I graduate--because it's refreshing to hear a critique of the current technologies that allow constant communication and contact by someone who values these technologies in the right context.  It seems that many opinions about these emerging technologies present an all-or-nothing perspective that leaves no room for balanced, moderate use of these (potentially) helpful technologies.  I use my smart phone to stay organized.  So what?