Technology: Help or Hindrance

Technology: Help or Hindrance

In recent years technology has become the centerpiece of everyday human interaction. Technology has lead to groundbreaking change and discovery. Its influence on daily life continues to increase and consume personal aspects of living. In an article by the Scientific American, titled The Networked Primate, author Mark Fishetti delves deeper into the relationship between the human species and technology. The article is an interview with sociologist Sherry Turkle of The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Fishetti pursuits deep into the mind of Turkle, discovering her stand on the harm of technology towards humans, and concluding that technology is straining human interaction and relationships. Turkle makes the claim that technology is damaging the quality and significance of human connections. According to Turkle views and my own, technology is constantly affecting, evolving, and harming the way humans interact with one another.

As expressed throughout the article, technology is hindering social aspects of our lives. In my opinion, the most important claim explored deals with human relationships. The value humans place on relationships in modern day society is fading. Our society is losing the capability to value a true, meaningful relationship. As Turkle discovered, “we want more from technology and less from each other,”(Turkle 3). For example, in the past we relied on others for simple information. Humans interacted and formed bonds when they were needed to help one another; in the modern era every answer you need is stored inside your pocket. Humans rely less one each other and more on the technology. Humans had a larger dependence on each other and now the purpose of keeping some people in our lives is questioned by the simplicity of technology. This access to information is reducing human interactions. Technology is not only eliminating the need for relationships but it is also hindering prior ones.

The dynamic of past relationships is also being affected by technology. I have seen this in my own life; for example I have seen the idea of a family dinner change over the past ten years. Technology has changed my family’s dynamic and over the years technology has edged its way into family traditions. A family dinner used to have a flow of conversation and now it’s interrupted by texting, television, phone calls and emails. As Turkle expresses, “dinner used to be the Utopian idea of the American family having a canonical three-generation gathering. Facebook is what’s utopian now,”(Turkle 2) this prime fundamental base of an American family is changing. Turkle is attempting to have us realize technology is detrimental to relationships and how we view one another. Rather than connecting on a personal level, one can just connect through Facebook. Instead of showing real compassion and desire to like an aspect of friend’s life, one can just like their picture. A single click of a like button is a form of compassion, and that is irrational. Technology takes away the passion and genuine want for a relationship. The idea of being connected on a personal level has been eliminated by being connected on a social media level.

Professor Turkle then examines