Reaction Paper: Connected, but alone?

Communication starts where there’s an exchange of information between

two or more person. Conversation is the most common form of communication. It
is an informal exchange of ideas by spoken words. As the conversation gets
deeper, the persons involve will have a stronger bond, they will feel connected to
each other. Conversation is essential in communicating for human-being. With
the rapid change brought by technology, communication takes a different form. It
can be on a form of calls, e-mails, videos, text messages and others. Most
people today use these forms to communicate with each other. It is easier today
to stay in touch with their loved ones. They can call, texts and even have a video
call through their desktops, laptops, tablets or on their smart phones, but when
you meet them face-to-face, are we really still connected or it just feels better
when you communicate with them from afar? Which feels better? The hug from
your loved ones or the fast connection of your mobile phone?

Alone together. What Sherry Turkle said on her talk at TEDTalks last 2012
was already an issue that time and it became worse this time. She said on her
talk that technology is taking us places we don’t want to go which I strongly
agree since I became a witness to it with my own family. Back then, my father
won’t allow me to use my phone when we’re at the dining table, but now, he use
his phone while we were eating. There’s also a time where we gathering at our
ancestral house but everyone is busy looking at their phones typing, scrolling up
and down and even having phone calls with others and I thought “What’s the use
of this family gathering when we’re just here holding our phones and not talking
to each other personally or face-to-face?”. It pains me to see that these devices
is separating us, not physically but mentally and emotionally, making a barrier to
communicate and worse, making us fight over silly things. This is what it feels
like being together while not being together. You are together physically, but not
together in other aspects.

Unmasking the user. Technology lets us present the self as we want others
to see it. These features can be found on social media sites like facebook,
twitter, instagram, tumblr, pinterest and etc.. In return, Technology isolates us
from meeting someone physically making us feel more comfortable talking to
strangers (chatrooms) , wasting much time with our device than starting a
conversation with our family or close friends that is on our side. As part of the
new generation, for me, it is easier to talk to stranger that to talk to your friends
and family. I find comfort to to others which I don’t really know because they
wont judge you because they don’t personally know you compared to the person
you really know. I open myself more to the others than to my friends. It is
because I have some trust issues on the people surrounding me. Nobody would
listen to you, and if they do, they would just think that you’re just being
overreacting or over-thinking to things as if like you’re talking nonsense or crazy
in the membrane. The problem in today’s generation is that people are too
caught up with the power of technology that they forgot how would other people
would feel. Wearing a thick mask to your comrade but unmasking yourself to a
stranger.
 Be on the same page. As the famous saying goes “No man is an island”
humans are not capable of living alone but because of these integration, humans
find companionship through artificial intelligence. It is quiet predictable that what
Sherry Turkle said would come true because as the time pass by, inventors are
thinking of new way of making human life easier or making humans lazier from
one generations to another generations. But what if you don’t have any other
person to talk to instead of the A.I. in front you, would you still blame the
technology or yourself for not making any change as early as today? You want to
keep the traditional way of communicating and that’s through conversation but
no one wants to converse with you because they are busy typing, tweeting,
hitting like, watching vlogs, and etc. Would you let them isolate you and would
left you feel alone? The only thing that you could do now is to adapt to all these
changes of you will be left out and you can’t relate to what they’re all talking
about. If you don’t adapt to these changes, you will be bullied, stereotyped or
called ignorant. You need to edit your feed, timeline, or wall to something
‘aesthetic’ or you will be called ‘jejemon’. You need to have some nice music in
your phone so others will not criticize it. You need to adapt through all these just
to fit in to the society. Those who don’t adapt to the changes that is happening
now will have the worst things in life.We live in a society where confidence in the
face is valued more than confidence in intelligence. This is the new generation,
you can’t change it even if you say that change must start within you. The
generation now is seeking for something easy and if they don’t find it, they will
feel depressed and post it in the internet, well in fact nothing in life comes easy
and for those problem having simple solutions, humans tend to make it
complicated. If you want to share your feelings, go talk to someone. If you want
to vent out, go talk to someone. If you want to have fun, go talk to someone. But
it is easier said than done. Some people think that it’s easy to talk to someone in
person but actually, it’s not but maybe if you think alike it could be possible but if
not, then it’s best to talk to a stranger.

An eye-opener for the sightless. There may be a reason where some users
uses the internet or the technology in general, like a drug that they forgot their
family, friends or the people surrounding them but they must not forget that what
the technology is giving them now is just temporary and nothing beats a good
conversation where you can’t edit what you said and you just have to be true to
everyone even if you know that you were wrong because humans are made to
be flawed not flawless. This video is somewhat good as an eye opener that
those who are blind or naive needs. We need to wake up and accept that we are
damaged and we need attention that didn’t come from scraps and metal but
must from a flesh that has warmth in it and we need to turn our attention to the
real thing before it’s too late.