Technologies Drastic Divide in Human Connections

As our world has become heavily influenced by this profound tool known as technology, some may find it a beneficial and efficient resource, including yourself. But, imagine a world without technology, allowing you to be only invested in what you are surrounded with. It appears technology can change our focus, driving us away from meaningful conversation with others. Since we rely on technology as a source for many things including communication and education, we tend to lose the real source of connection. The presence of technology has caused human beings to lose focus being present in conversation, driving us to rely on our phones when we are alone leading to losing attention to both ourselves and others, lastly causing us to not form genuine connections with others. Ultimately, technology has posed an obstacle between real conversation with others that is valuable to our social development as individuals.

“The Empathy Diaries” by Sherry Turkle addresses the various concerns that have stemmed from our use of technology. Turkle is not only an author but also has a doctorate in sociology and personal psychology with various positions in the technology and Social Studies of Science fields as well. Her background has provided her the opportunity to conduct this well written piece addressing the idea of “conversation” and how technologies impact on us humans as it may pose difficulty when being in conversation with others in society. Her writing imposes us to consider our use of technology as it prevents individuals from being engaged with the social environment that is right in front of them and not on a screen, ultimately setting a divide between the real and digital worlds.

When it comes to humans and technology it appears that phones have become a barrier to having fully focused in person interactions. With our phones being practically attached to us, considering we have them with us a majority of the time, it causes us to subconsciously focus on it and all the content it contains. Turkle provides more insight to this as she writes, “We have learned that even a silent phone inhibits conversations that matter. The very sight of a phone on the landscape leaves us feeling connected to each other, less invested in each other” (Turkle 344). It appears that Turkle’s point is to highlight this term, “connection” and its importance for humans to form face-to-face connections. As physical conversations serve a purpose to benefit our social capabilities allowing us to develop many skills from in person communication such as listening and empathy. However, when we can never give our undivided attention to the person in front of us due to our phones, it leaves us missing out on the opportunity to be engaged with others and build valuable social skills from doing so. Our electronic devices have served an issue, drawing our attention away from sharing the experience of real life connections that us humans should strive for as it enhances our social abilities.

Our attachment to our phones may lead us to disassociate ourselves from face-to-face connections, but we seek to stay connected digitally when faced with the state of loneliness. With this being said, when we are left alone we can never settle with just our thoughts for comfort, resulting in us going on our phones to solve this problem. According to Turkle, “Afraid of being alone, we struggle to pay attention to ourselves. And what suffers is our ability to pay attention to each other. If we can’t find our own center, we lose confidence in what we have to offer others. Or you can work the circle the other way: We struggle to pay attention to each other, and what suffers is our ability to know ourselves” (Turkle, 348). In other words, Turkle addresses that unsuccessfully seeking value within ourselves causes us to poorly communicate with others. With a low sense of self worth it limits us to do so. Not effectively engaging with others could negatively impact how we are able to recognize ourselves. It can be determined that human interaction is essential to forming our character. We feed off conversation with others as it can bring out our true self when we present ourselves in a certain way when communicating. This is affected by phones drawing us in, leading us to lose sight of who we are and our ability to show others our full potential. Phones are a way to fill the void of being alone, causing us to  never settle with our own thoughts, which pushes us away from acknowledging who we are and how we portray ourselves to show others our true identity. 

Technology presents itself to keep us engaged in what is going on in the world around us, which means it shifts our attention from being invested in forming true relationships and building valuable social abilities. With our phones always by our side being full of new content and information that can be very interesting, encouraging us to refer to it in order to stay engaged all the time. This leads us to disassociate ourselves in having true conversations which is important to developing social skills such as empathy. It has been identified that conversations play an important role, “Many of the things we all struggle with in love and work can be helped by conversation. Without conversation, studies show that we are less empathetic, less connected, less creative and fulfilled” (Turkle 350). It has been proven as Turkle stated that conversations are needed as a way to balance various attributions that help us grow as individuals. As communication with others challenges us to practice listening and negotiating, that helps us build on our ability to empathize with others when we are able to hear their perspectives. Whereas when technology comes into play it prohibits us from the opportunity to have real conversation as we can sit behind a screen to communicate without getting the genuine experience of forming a connection. As technology becomes a barrier to human interaction it takes away from the possibilities to develop social skills especially empathy that blocks us from being at our best self. 

Now that technology has taken over a majority of our lives, it appears to threaten our likelihood of having real conversations with society. Our phones have prevented us from being at our full potential of staying focused during a face to face interaction. While it develops the urge to rely on our phones even when alone, causing us to lose ourselves and our ability to see others. When not being involved in the conversation it makes us incapable of forming crucial social skills that are valuable to human life. Next time you’re using technology or on your phone, keep in mind how you could possibly be having a real conversation that builds on relationships that matter.