Alone together
Sherry Turkle (2011) in Alone Together provides deep research on how people interact with robots and how Network affects human relationship. In general, this ethnographic research provides deep analysis about the role of technology and the effects of it on society related to relationship and intimacy. These are two major topics that I could clearly see in the book. They are robotic moment and networked. In my reflective paper, I am going to explain my reflection of the reading based on two primary themes “better than nothing” and “keeping the Sabbath” In part one about robotic moment, the author provides result of her observation or ethnographic research on how people interact with robots. From the observations, there is one event that is interesting. It is mentioned in the book that there is a conversation by fifth graders about robots and grandparents in Miss Grant’s class that ended up with a question from the children: “Don’t we have people for these jobs?” (Turkle, 2011) Further in the conclusion the author added some questions “are there people to take care of us if we become ‘inconvenient’?” “Why do we want robots to care for us?” for some people they might think that it is “better than nothing.” This question seems simple, but if we tried to put ourselves in the situation of the elders who were cared by caregiver machine then, it will be a difficult question. When I imagined about elders who were cared by machine, I imagined myself who were in that situation talking to a robot hopelessly. If that happened, that could be a
scariest thing in my life. I might have lost my sanity. I hope it will not happen to me in the future. In this case, no matter what the situation will be, I still trust people than a robot. There is a hope when I talk to people. I can feel that I am alive and I am not alone. There is a research mentioned in the book that when some senior citizens were given an option between hanging out with robot and talking to a researcher, they preferred talking to one of the researcher. In this case, I learn that robots cannot replace human. Perhaps for some people, they may prefer robot than human because many times they found out that humans tend to be careless. In this case they do not trust human. Then in the future, when many people trust robots than human, perhaps there will be no more good people in this world that makes people trust each other. The author said, “When we lose the “burden” of care, we begin to give up on our compact that human beings will care for other human beings.” Another thing that I learned in part one is that people tend to choose robot as their companion because there is a disappointment with others in their lives. This is a form of escaping from the broken relationship that they have with other people. Therefore, it is important that we maintain good relationship with others. We better try to put ourselves in others’ shoes. This is I think a “Golden Rule” in the Christian Bible that are similar to most religion in this world -‐ “So, in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you” In part two, the author explained about the effects of networked to the young people. She said, “The network’s effects on today’s young people are paradoxical. Networking makes it easier to play with identity but harder to leave the past behind because the Internet is forever. The network facilitates separation but also inhibits
it” further she explained that in during her interview with a sixteen year old teenager, Sanjay have got over a hundred text messages in his phone. Thus, he said, “I can’t imagine doing this when I get older” then “how long do I have to continue doing this?” The story above indicates that some teenagers realized the problem they have with having social live via phones or network. This also happens to most of people who live in this “flat world” the term used by Friedman (2007) to describe an era people can easily connected with others in a distance. This is an era where distance will not be a matter for communication around the world. In this era, it is difficult for us to put away our cellphones or computers for a while. We live in a situation that the network makes us busy. Thus, in the book, Sherry suggests that we need time for reflection. According to her that is the time for solitude. This idea makes me think about “keeping the Sabbath” – the fourth rule in Ten Commandments in the bible. In a broad sense this rule recommend us to enjoy the moment we live. In this case, we enjoy the time with our family, enjoy the fresh air outside while we are jogging, amazed by the beauty of a sunset on the beach, enjoy playing with kids, without being distracted by text messages, emails, phone rings, or other technology. I remembered I was excited when I had a vacation with my friends to Seattle. We spent a day there. At that time we visited Space Needle, museum of flight, museum of science, and some other places. I took so many pictures with my friends without realizing that we have spent most of the time taking pictures on every beautiful and important place, but we did not really enjoy that moment. Perhaps we
were too excited to document all events. The photographs can tell people that we have visited interesting places in Seattle, but if they asked me to describe in detail what are beautiful things that you found in Seattle I would say that I need to visit Seattle once again because I have missed many important moments there. Therefore, after reading the book, I learned about two things. First, robots will never replace human. However, if we think that they can, then the question that we should answer is that “What are we missing in our lives together that leads us to prefer lives alone together?” this will help us to know the exact problem that makes us trusting robots than other people. Second, never forget to “keep the Sabbath” References: Turkle, S. (2011). Alone together: Why we expect more from technology and less from each other. New York: Basic Books. Friedman, T.L. (2007). The world is flat: A brief history of the Twenty-‐first century. New York: Picador.