Technology’s 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. 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. Ultimately, the presence of technology has set a divide between the real and digital world, stripping us from 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 background in  sociology and psychology as well. With this she has prepared this well written piece addressing the idea of “conversation” and  how technologies impact on humans, as it may pose difficulty to empathize when communicating with others. 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.

When it comes to humans and technology phones have become a barrier to having fully focused in person interactions. The entry goes on to provide more insight, “We have learned that even a silent phone inhibits conversations that matter. The very sight of a phone on the landscape leaves us feeling less 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. I agree with Turkle, as I am very much guilty of this. There have been some occasions when I’ve had the tendency to check my phone or even be actively on my phone as someone is speaking to me. Our electronic devices have served an issue, drawing our attention away from sharing the experience of real life connections that us humans should be striving for.

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. More exposure to technology, especially for younger generations, causes phone usage to be the new normal of communication as people grow up knowing nothing other than phones is best to settle with. It can be determined that phones push us away from knowing who we are, “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. Not effectively engaging with others could negatively impact how we are able to recognize ourselves. Human interaction is essential to forming our character. When we feed off conversation with others it can bring out our true self as 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 be satisfied with our own thoughts. This pushes us away from acknowledging who we are and how we portray ourselves in order to show others our true identity. 

Technology presents itself to keep us engaged in what is going on in the world around us. For instance, we always want to be updated about the recent news of our favorite celebrity or a social media influencer that we support. This 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, it encourages us to refer to it as a way of staying engaged all the time. This causes us to disassociate ourselves in having true conversations as it plays an important role in developing social skills such as empathy: “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, conversations are needed as a way to balance various abilities that help us grow as individuals. Communication with others challenges us to practice listening and negotiating. These traits are what helps us strengthen our capability to empathize with others upon hearing their perspectives. Whereas when technology comes into play it prohibits us from this opportunity of a real conversation, since we 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 possibility to build social skills such as empathy, which prohibits us from being at our best self. 

Now that technology has taken over a majority of our lives, posing a threat to 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, having the urge to rely on our devices even when alone, and resulting in losing ourselves and the 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 instead.

Works Cited

Turkle, Sherry. The Empathy Diaries. Penguin Press, 2021