Letter to Sherry Turkle About Alone Together Example

Dear Sherry Turkle,

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After reading your book, Alone Together, I was left with mixed reactions. At first, I thought the book was poorly written, and there was the need to structure it better. The way you structured your work made me bored and uninterested. What made me jaded is that you preceded some chapters with a point and covered them with interviews from various participants as well accompanying them with the interview quotes. In fact, I kept on skipping some sections particularly the parts with the participants; reactions because I did not want to read every individual's opinion to a new robot due to their number. I also did not like the research that was conducted. There ought to be more statistical data rather than gathering information qualitatively using interviews and stories. In contrast, the book enlightened me regarding the effects of technology in the society. Sincerely speaking, I learned a lot about technology from the book including how people are attached to technology today, the social impacts of technology and the emotional effects brought by technology.

By reading your book, I have realized that we cannot live comfortably without technological tools like cellphones and computers. I agree when you state that ''these technological devices have impacted social life through texting and social media (Turkle 88)''. Your idea that texting and social media has negative impacts on the users is accurate because of the way the social skill of a person and his or her emotional state is being affected. In fact, texting and social media are the effects of reduced communication in the society as they influence people to lose-face-face interaction. In the real world, many individuals can communicate effectively through social media like Facebook and Twitter or by texting. The contrary holds when the same people find it difficult to express themselves well through physical communication.

Your book also highlights how robots affect people's lives emotionally. This effect is outlined in research analysis of the reactions of the youth and elderly to robots. As I read this part, I became more surprised on the convolution of robots. Their complexity resembles that of an organic being. ''People are attached to these robots as if they were real (Turkle 85).'' To some extent, individuals are buying new robots to replace them with the dead ones. I believe this kind of emotional relationship is neutral because it affects our lives both negatively and positively. You discuss in your book how robots can take the place of a person. For example, you illustrate this idea by using a lonely woman who is forgotten by family but relies on a robot that serves as her friend. As much as this scenario appears to be an advantage, in my view, I disagree with it because robots have no emotions or any sense towards human beings.

In reading the poems composed by David Trinidad and Maya Angelou, we can imagine both sides of the benefits and the challenges of technology as well as how it can affect our relationships. For instance, Maya Angelou supports your view that technology has taken over the world and people cannot live comfortably without it. Angelou says that ''the telephone tats the day (7),'' to portray the idea that the telephone controls the day. Indeed, we tend to mark our absence or presence by communicating through phones. We log into the internet for the sake of interacting with people around us. Even when traveling in the world, we attempt to keep our presence online through our cellphones to maintain contacts with our families and friends.

Angelou depicts these opinions in her poem. On the other hand, she reveals that technology affects our social lives. In her verse, she cites that the spinster is ''busy with the hemming of strangers (11).'' From my point of view, the poet implies that the telephone is making friends, family and loved ones to be very busy to the extent that they cannot interact with her socially. As a result, she is left lonely without anyone to keep her company. This case is true because the technology, particularly cell phone makes the users too busy texting and using the social media, thus, limiting their time to engage in physical interaction with the family. For the poet, the telephone has segregated her with everyone, thus, living her isolated. Therefore, the diction used by Angelou in the personification of the telephone intends to pass the message that the existing technology is controlling and changing peoples' lives.

Trinidad's poem also cites the changes that technology has brought in the world. We feel like our abilities are improved, and work efficiency is increased while multitasking. In my view, Trinidad is also seconding your position on the impacts of technology in the social life of humankind. He uses 'childhood house' metaphorically to represent technological devices that are taking control of the world today. In social life, Trinidad agrees that technology is making every member of the family to mind his or her business. He cites, ''children roller skate down the new sidewalk (7).'' This statement could mean that the younger generation is concentrating too much on the technology, and they spend part of their time on social media and texting. By stating that ''fathers take young trees (8)'' whereas ''mothers plan baby showers and Tupperware parties (9),'' Trinidad implies that the technology is bringing separation in the family. Evidently, the poet has confirmed what you stated earlier about technology affecting the social life of people in the society.

Conclusion

Overall, your essay, Trinidad's poem, and Angelou's telephone poem have focused on the impacts of technology particularly on our social lives. Although technology is an important technique, we find that it affects physical communication. Most importantly, people are becoming too much obsessed with their phones, computers, and other devices to the extent that they are not concerned with one-on-one interaction. Therefore, technology has changed our relationships with others by limiting the way we communicate with people and the time we take to associate with our friends, families and loved ones.

Work Cited

Turkle, Sherry. Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. New York: Basic Books, 2011. Print.