Discussion

Question 1

When looking at the headings, paragraphs, vocabulary, and the other clues of Sherry Turkle’s article “The Flight from Conversation,” it can be inferred that the author’s main idea expresses the lack of live communication. In fact, modern technology does not make people closer by providing perfect opportunities for online conversations. On the contrary, mobile connection makes people lonelier than before. The article conveys the idea that people have become accustomed to the way of life where everyone is “alone together” in spite of their mobile connection. The vocabulary used by the author allows the reader to easily perceive the text. Sherry Turkle provides examples from everyday life that make the audience think about the true value of modern connection between people.

Question 2

The author wants to persuade the audience by encouraging them to adopt a certain point of view, in particular that mobile devices put every person in his or her own bubble without making them closer to each other. Actually, people become closer to keyboards and touch screens. Sherry Turkle claims that technology allows people to control each other, keeping them at a distance rather than providing perfect opportunities to communicate (Turkle, 2012). In my opinion, this lifestyle becomes a habit as people do not realize that they are in captivity of mobile devices. It has become evident that people cannot talk to each other in workplaces, because they are busy with their mobile phones, computers, and other devices while they are talking or messaging. Therefore, their attention is distracted and they are not focused on the things around them. It seems at times that the present moment is not important to them.

 

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Question 3

The author states the most important idea about the topic in the middle of the article by claiming that technology has cleaned human relationships (Turkle, 2012). In my own words, I can interpret the author’s words as follows. Mobile connection is a pitiful semblance of human communication, because the growing popularity of online or mobile conversations adversely affects the real-life communication abilities of users. Human relationships involve numerous aspects that are not limited by simple connection. The word ‘flight’ in the title means that people fly from the real conversation by using technology, which means they have fewer chances to obtain skills of self-reflection, since it is almost impossible to do it with the great numbers of friends on Facebook, for instance.

Question 4

Sherry Turkle claims that the new technology substitutes communication between people when developing relationships. She believes that the involvement of mobile connection is determined by many factors (Turkle, 2012). In particular, to support this claim, she provides the following reasons. First, users prefer online conversations, because they need someone who can listen to them. On the contrary, in real life they realize that nobody wants to listen to them rather than speaking themselves. For this reason, many of them prefer to talk to the machines pretending they care about them. Consequently, most individuals expect more from their digital devices than from one another, mistakenly thinking that they are always heard by others, are never alone, and can find place for their attention. I think the author provides adequate reasons to support the claim, giving numerous examples in her article.

Question 5

The central claim of this reading is that modern devices have turned into a problem that deprives people of the opportunity of developing real communication and building relationships. However, I do not think that daily communication is evolving in the way Sherry Turkle describes. The author’s statement that people do not experience people from the Internet as they are is rather controversial. Oftentimes, we do not experience people as they are even though if they are close to us, sometimes even for many years. Moreover, new technology provides people with more advantages than disadvantages. Thus, using social networks such as Facebook, users can communicate with one another regardless geographical barriers. The ideas written in the article are rather disputable and they need further supporting evidence. Hopefully, the Internet and mobile connection do more good than harm.