Can You Hear Me Now? :: Analysis, Sherry Turkle, Rocler-Gladen

Are technology and the media shedding the very fabric of the existence we have known? As technology and the media spread their influence, the debate over the built-in advantages and disadvantages intensifies. Although opinions vary widely on the subject, two writers offer similar views Professor Sherry Turkle, director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self, in her article Can You instruct Me Now and Naomi Rockler-Gladen, who formerly taught media studies at Colorado State University, with her article Me Against the Media From the Trenches of a Media Lit Class. Turkle asserts that technology has changed how people develop and view themselves, while at the like time affecting their concepts of time management and focus (270). Similarly, Rockler-Gladen believes media and its inherent advertising have had a profound effect on the values and thinking of the human beings (284). I could not agree more with Professor Turkle and Ms. Rockler-Gladen the effects technology and media have worried and annoyed me for quite so time. The benefits of technology and media are undeniable, exactly so then are the flaws. People are beginning to shift their focus away from the physical world to the virtual world as they find out it easier and more comfortable. The intended purpose of technology and media was to be a tool to improve the quality of life, not shackles to tie people to their devices. I no overnight recognize this changed world and long for the simple world of my youth.Turkle argues that technology has fundamentally changed how people view themselves and their lives (271). She reports that, BlackBerry users describe that sense of encroachment of the device on their time. One says, I dont have enough time alone with my mind another, I artificially make time to think (274). Her patch is that people have to make a deliberate choice to disconnect, to exist in their own mind rather than the virtual world (Turkle 274). Another baksheesh Turkle brings up is tha t in this technologic age children are not learning to be self- reliant. Without having the experience of being truly alone and making their own decisions, children are not developing the skills they once did (Turkle 274). As Turkle reports, There used to be a moment in the life of an urban child, usually between 12 and 14, when in that respect was a first time to navigate the city alone. It was a rite of passage that communicated, you are on your own and responsible.