Monday, January 30, 2012

desperate callings

Dear Ms. Turkle,

Your article "Alone Together" was sad because it revealed the truth of what is going on in society today. People are constantly on their cell phones or social networking sites to keep in touch and you rarely see people meeting others or getting to know each other in person. People typically text or call each other to get to know each other, and when their cell phones aren't ringing off the hook to notifications of text messages, they feel a sense of loneliness that no one cares about them.

It's funny how your introduction talks about Second Life and Zhu Zhu pets. I'm taking a class right now in college and we were required to make an avatar for Second Life. When we were asked to edit our appearance/image there were so many different options starting from head to toe. I was given the opportunity to make myself look absolutely flawless due to all the different face and body features that were able to be altered. I had no idea that a head shape had five different kinds of options to choose such as make the head more round or squished or making the head have a bump on the top or a bigger chin. The list can go on and I found it funny how you said that people make themselves look younger, skinnier, and prettier. No one is perfect and Second Life gives everyone a chance to make themselves look perfect.



I want to quote you on what you said that "Technology is seductive when what it offers meets our human vulnerabilities. And as it turns out, we are very vulnerable indeed. We are lonely but fearful of intimacy. Digital connections and the sociable robot may offer the illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship." I found this to be interesting because what you said is true. People tend to use virtual connections instead of face-to-face contact because they can control how often and how much interaction they want with someone else. They want to be able to emotionally talk to a robot over the internet to give them a moment on their pity pot and then go on with their lives.

Thank you for writing an interesting article to read.

Stephanie

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