Start by Reading Chapters 8 and 9 (if you haven’t already!)

Turkle says on page 13 in the Introduction to her book: ”Online connections were first conceived as a substitute for face-to-face contact, when the latter was for some reason impractical:  Don’t have time to make a phone call?  Shoot off a text message.  But very quickly, the text message became the connection of choice.  We discovered the network – the world of connectivity – to be uniquely suited to the overworked and overscheduled life it makes possible.  And now we look to the network to defend us against loneliness even as we use it to control the intensity of our connections.  Technology makes it easy to communicate when we wish and to disengage at will.”

I agree with much of the above.  Technology DOES make communication much easier and faster.  But Turkle points out later in the book that technology also burdens us with its convenience.  We’re never without it so that even when we’re on vacation, we’re often expected to be available, or worse, we expect ourselves to continue to be available.  It’s just too easy!  What do YOU think?

Posted by Librarian Kathleen Wiechelman

We Begin!

This is where we’ll post comments, discuss and even argue about Sherry Turkle’s book, Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other, during Fall semester 2012, as part of UAS Ketchikan’s One Ketchikan One Book project.  We want to hear from you!

Turkle’s book brings up a variety of issues that many people around the country, and even around the world, are thinking about and talking about, and maybe you’ve been thinking about them too.  Let’s get started!

Alone Together is divided into two sections: Part One is called “The Robotic Moment” and discusses robots going back to the 1970s, both sociable robots given to children for play, as well as more advanced ones found in laboratories, and finally on to those being developed for use in elder care.  Part Two, beginning on page 151, and called “Networked”, will be the focus of our discussions at UAS Ketchikan during the Fall semester.  “Networked” is the story not only of the positives of what the Internet and our online lives have brought us, but what the negatives may be, as revealed by Turkle’s interviews with users of today’s technology.  Are texting and Facebook causing us to have fewer face to face conversations?  (Did you know that the average teenager sends over 3,000 texts a month?)  Me neither.  When do they have the time?

Posted by Librarian Kathleen Wiechelman