Eight group assignment

Utopia, dystopia and alone together?

This week our task was to watch the TED talk by Sherry Turkle. We decided to individually answer the questions due to the tight schedules of our group members which made it hard for us to find time for a decent discussion on this topic. As a result we came to the conclusion that it made more sense for us to do the assignment this way. 

What does "alone together" mean?

Nowadays nearly everyone has a smartphone and are constantly using it. People are using their phones everywhere and checking what is going on online, on social media sites and so on and so forth. Even when we are surrounded with friends and family or co workers we tend to rather concentrate on the happenings on our phones instead of the people we are with. SARA

It means that people that are present are not exactly present. What I mean is that for example, four friends get together and all of them are chatting in Facebook or some such at the same time. The people are physically there, but thanks to Facebook and other kind of mobile applications for example, they are not here at this moment, but they are in multiple places so to speak. Being "alone together" means that people are together with each other, but also alone due to Facebook or so. ANTON

Symptoms of "alone together" in real life

I have noticed it everywhere. Most of the time I don't even realize it since I'm doing it also myself, but once you stop looking at your phone and really start observing the people around you, it is evident. For example when you are waiting for a subway or a bus, and start to look at other people, almost everyone are in their own world looking at their phones and probably wouldn't even notice if a train hit them. SARA

I personally have had this kind of experience so many times I am not sure I can even count them. I can be present, however, I might also be reading news from the internet from my phone or doing something else at the same time, as in my focus is not just there at this exact moment. A very good example would be a family dinner, the children are playing or doing whatever they do with their smartphones while the parents for example answer emails and such. All of this happening while the family is having dinner. ANTON

Utopian or Dystopian point of view?

I think it is more dystopian. I relate to what she is talking and the talk indeed appeals to me. She is talking about things that I myself have been thinking about a lot. SARA

I personally feel like Sherry Turkle's point of view considering technology is dystopian that we went wrong at some point and it is something that apparently cannot be fixed. I agree with her to a certain point that some of these things are going way overboard and it is rather hard to explain what exactly and how, but a family dinner and everyone is texting or so with their phones? That just sounds so wrong, but maybe I am just traditional. ANTON