This week, we watched a very interesting Ted-Talk. Sherry Turkle (The Specker) brought out some very profound questions about how technologies have changed our life and our relationships in a bad way. She mentioned that although those online communications are a better way to learning our self and to improving our life, we spent too much time on connecting instead of having a true relationship with peoples. These ideas are so novel since we so used to technologies, we tend not to thinking what these technologies leading us to. In fact, according to a survey, 64% of the American adults have at least one smartphone(Pew Research Center). As one of regularly internet user, I believe there are some trues in this speech while a little of them are overstated.I believe in face-to-face communication as what Sherry Turkle believe, even through i use internet in a daily basis and I text a lot. When I was a child, the internet hadn't been very practical in our region. Me and my friends were always play together, even when we played video games. I think spending time with friends talking to them is essential to a friendship. While some people might argue that sending text is also a way to communicate, the problem is that you cannot understand the feeling through text. Some one might send you a text saying that he is happy but he is in stress. You have not idea of which moon of the person who is in the another end of the self phone. If you don't understand he/she feeling, building a strong relationship is utterly impossible.
However, nowadays, technologies has changed the traditional way of building relationship. A picture in the speech is a prefect illustration of this contemporary phenomenon. Turkle took a photo of her dangerous and her dangerous's friends watching their phone while they were together. "They were being together while not being" Turkle stated. This is the side effect which internet has brought us to. This phenomenon is so practical in my country that people cannot have a party without asking everyone to giving up their self phone because everyone will be busy on their screen instead of talking. As Turle stated, they just want to customize their life and only listen to the things that interested to they. I think this is the thing which people need to change. People need to listen to others even if they don't agree or they feel bored because this is the only way to understand someone. Choosing not to listen is not only disrespectful, and it will make people choose not to listen to you. "You aren't trying to understand me, why should I?" This is how the misunderstanding start.
 |
| Phones were collected in a dine |
Nonetheless，after all the counter examples of internet, I don't think internet will destroy our life. There are a lot of people believe in face-to-face communication, like me. We also need to see the bright side of internet. For example, I have a relative who was coming to The U.S. to study. He used internet to find all his schoolmate even before his class started. Some of them became his roommate before he rented an apartment. Lastly, They became very close as friend. Internet is not the sin. it's how we use it. If you could balance your life and your online life, connecting will only helps you, not harts you.
Great post Lin. Like you I to believe in that we could both balance talking face to face and texting. I feel that most of us that were born and are in college now its possible to use both talk and text. I love the photo that shows the phones were collected before they ate.
回复删除Hey Lin,
回复删除I like your post, and i like your statement in where most people do argue through tex and it can be annoying because i also had done it. The point is that most people who do argue don't really know how the other person really feel because they are not there to see them. Most people do lie and say they are fine but in reality they are not. I also like that picture in that restaurant in where the phones were collected before they order. Its a better way for them to actually have a conversation with one another.