CONNECTED, BUT ALONE? | Flight From Conversation

"Being together while not being together"

Based on "Flight From Conversation" by Sherry Turkle

After listening to Sherry Turkle's TedTalk entitled "Connected, but Alone?" I remember a quote I stumbled upon on social media saying "Life was much easier when Apple and Blackberry were just fruits." At first, I didn't understand what it's supposed to portray, like how can life be easier without gadgets that make our lives easier, right? But then, over the course of my virtual life, I have come to a realization that I wished to have thought of before. 

SOCIAL MEDIA

The very purpose of social media was to connect people all over the world. Be it for business, entertainment, educational, political, or personal reasons. 

HOWEVER,

These are also the very applications, that are supposed to connect us to form "relationships" with one another, which causes us to isolate ourselves from each other. As many as the positive effects it gives us, is also as many as the negative effects it has stored in us. 

As we indulge ourselves in its positive effects we became dependent on it to the point as though we can't live without it. That's when we start neglecting an important mission as a person, it is to form "bonds" through conversation, to get to know each other and understand. 

Virtual communication may offer us "conversations" an exchange of information about each other, however, it does not allow us to really know each other as we can control the information we share. Just like what Sherry Turkle said on her TedTalk "Texting, email, posting, all of these things let us present the self as we want to be."  

ISOLATION

When we start neglecting physical communication, that's the start of isolating oneself as we grew to think that all we need is our mobile phones, laptops, pc, and other gadgets use for virtual communication, and what's sad is that we think that these things keep us from feeling lonely. 

That as if everything we need is in these gadgets and applications not realizing the truth that these things are one of the reasons why we feel lonely. 

WE START TO FEEL ALONE.

As though the world could never understand us, that's why we kept indulging ourselves in these technologies and we start losing our confidence to interact with one another in reality and settling down on virtual connections. These scenarios would make us develop the fear of being alone. That fear of being alone is what will drive us to indulge ourselves more in these technologies as if our happiness depends on the percentage of our gadgets' batteries. 

IMPORTANCE OF FACE-TO-FACE INTERACTION

People need face-to-face interaction with each other for it helps us boost our moods and reduces our stress. Choosing virtual interaction over face-to-face interaction would put risk to ourselves to develop anxieties, mood disorders, and worse, depression. 

The more we became dependent on virtual reality the more we feel dissatisfied with ourselves, the more we develop insecurity. And would be one of the reasons why we isolate ourselves because we thought "we are not good enough." 

A study at the University of Pennsylvania says that a reduction in using social media apps would make one feel less lonely. 

Face-to-face interaction allows us to develop a relationship that goes beyond words, an interaction that could even reach the soul of a person. 

REALIZATION

Going back to the quote I mentioned above that says "Life is much easier when Apple and Blackberry were just fruits." I have realized that these gadgets that were developed to make our lives easier are now making our lives harder to deal with. I realized that these applications and technologies that were supposed to free ourselves in both reality and virtual reality have become shackles that bind us down. 

Shackles that separate us from each other due to our overuse and becoming dependent on it. It has become the standard of our life. And causes us a hard time to fully understand each other. 

Parents who struggle to understand their child and would rather post their problems in social media rather than talking it out in person. 

Friends who would gather together for night outs, sleepovers and etc.  then would spend all their hours on their phones and wouldn't be able to talk out what they have been through.

All of these are examples of "Being together while not being together."

Lastly,

This topic has reminded me of a movie I watched years ago. The movie was about a person whose lover died due to an accident. Unable to cope up with the loss, the person isolated herself from reality and everyone. In order to help the girl to get on her feet again, her relatives sent her a sociable robot that looks exactly like her lover. The purpose of the robot was to help her cope up and start a new life.

Trailer of the Movie "Hal" 

The reason why I shared this movie with you, is to share my wish that using these technologies that were made for us to have a better life, we should use it effectively, not sacrificing our relationship with reality and our mental health.

Thank you for reading!!!

You can comment down below your thoughts, experience, or anything regarding this topic!

REFERENCES: 

        Turkle, S. (2012, April 3). Connected, but Alone? Retrieved August 16, 2020,              

        from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7Xr3AsBEK4

        Robinson, L & Smith, M. (January 2020). Social Media and Mental Health. Retrieved August 16, 

        2020, from  https://www.helpguide.org/articles/mental-health/social-media-and-mental-health.htm