Question

What are your initial thoughts about technology and leisure? What were some of the subjects that you agreed and disagreed with? watch link = https://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together?language=en

Answer 1

Technology is intricately linked with our everyday life and has come to define nearly all aspects of our life from health to household needs to even recreation and leisure. Prior to the talk and somewhat even after viewing Sherry Tuckles’s TED talk, I strongly believed that technology no matter how useful is rather banal. It’s ‘as if’ quality makes it a good supplement to reality but it cannot completely replace reality. In her Sherry Tuckle addresses the growing existential crises of our time about the meanings of life and what it is to be human in a world where we constantly make negotiations with others through the interface of our smartphones and computer screens. She raises an interesting argument about the downfall of conversations. While, I agree with her that technology is limiting especially for the social and interpersonal development of the youth, and it has changed the quality of our communications,I disagree with her on the count that technological networks such as the social media do not add much substance to our virtual personas or identities. From a more philosophical point, I think our deep reliance on technology also can reflect light on the transformations in the ontological development of our sense of who we are itself and the traditional dichotomies of human vs. non-human may no longer be needed as a normative understanding of humanity. Perhaps, the technology which has risen the psychologist’s alarm can also be reviewed and critically appreciated for the infinite possibility of extensions in the social network that it has made possible in society and even increased the proportion of larger political conversations by creating a free and independent space for critical and public expresi