This week an article appeared on the op-ed page in the NY Times telling us that we "literally" love our iphones. The ringing of the iPhone apparently activates the cortex of the brain which is most often associated with feelings of love and compassion.
This week we focused on the issue of identity. Who are we in relationship to our gadgets? Are we having more “personal” interchanges with a screen that with each other? Our sense of self is radically redefining itself, as we transform ourselves into an image of who we want to project online.
Sherry Turkle, of MIT has spent the last three decades exploring our relationship to our gadgets. We have become a society tethered to our iphones, blackberries,____________(insert your gadget here). Without them, we feel a deep loss. She describes a television producer whose Palm crashed, and she felt like it was more than she could handle. A death. “I felt as if I had lost my mind.”
Dr. Turkle argues that technology is interfering with adolescent development, by keeping kids attached to their parents, unable to make their own decisions, and unable to move forward and develop a sense of autonomy and independence.
Dr. Turkle also worries that we are increasingly blurring the lines between RL and virtual reality. “Sometimes we engage with avatars who anonymously stand in for others, enabling us to express ourselves in intimate ways to strangers."
The question that she leaves us with, “It hangs on the question of what we will be like, what kind of people we are becoming as we develop very intimate relationships with our machines.”
I don’t know the answers to these questions.But the desire for deep personal connections has not disappeared. People still crave human connection.
I may really like my iphone, but I love my husband and daughter.
I really like your quote "I may really like my iphone, but I love my husband and daughter."
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in Bangkok during summer break. I brought my U.S. iPhone with me. Unfortunately, Thailand's mobile subscriber did not allow me to use my U.S. iPhone. As a result, I did not have iPhone for 2-3 days.
In order to communicate with others, I needed to use my BlackBerry as substitution. And I try to think that they are the same, they are just smart phones.
Nob. I was wrong. Life was not the same without iPhone. In fact, my iPhone did spoil me in the U.S. and it has helped me to live my life happier.
I missed my iPhone. After I had used BlackBerry for a short period of time, I finally found the way to use my U.S. iPhone again.
OMG. My iPhone is actually my real partner.
If you want to talk about gadgets and phones. Talk to me. I am currently on my eighth cell phone this year and I have gone from a featured phone to a brick w/ a pull out antenna, to a smart phone, etc. Last year I was with out a phone for two months and yes indeed it was an interesting and memorable experience. I liked and I hated it at the same time.
ReplyDeleteI would like to argue that it is a generalization that "we cannot live without our gadgets." I would be perfectly fine if I did not have a phone. But the question to ask would be would the people that need to contact you be fine? I think they wouldn't. In a way it really depends on the location and activities you partake in. For example, if you're backpacking and living in the woods somewhere, you're probably gonna have a different need for a phone if you were living in the city.
what do you think about the new iPhone 4S:
http://keithkaplan.blogspot.com/2011/10/what-no-iphone-5.html
AS an international student here, I really like how my gadget--iphone makes my life better. Even though I am far away from my family and friends, but I could still connect with them by social networking websites and softwares. It's true that I may have enterchanges more with the screen, but at the same time, it also shortens the distance between me and people back home. Given that I don't have face-to-face opportunites with them when I am here, enterchange with machine as a medium is better than nothing, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteHey Keith, this is funny because last week after class we were having this "debate" about who's cell phone was worse! Sandra and Bank I want to say the same thing Keith said...if you want to talk about phones talk to ME!!
ReplyDeleteI have changed my phone many, many times in the last year and a half or so and went for months without a phone too at different times throughout my years!!! I realized I was fine but my friends were SO frustrated. Since communication is a two-way street it is not enough that you feel like you can live without a phone...you have to consider people who want to get in touch with you as well. Now, I feel like there is no way I am going back to not having a phone. The only reason I ever do it is literally when I do NOT want to be in touch with anybody...haha as anti-social as that might sound...
All in all, even though we are getting SO attached and dependent upon our gadgets and especially our smart phones I think there is a fundamental need and satisfaction that comes from face-to-face interactions and communications. I am with you Sandra, I love my technological gadgets but I LOVE hanging out with my family and friends in person. I am one of those people who believe that this component of us, in humanity, will never disappear no matter how much technology develops.