Alone Together- Group C

Back to less optimism about the web! A couple things really struck me about the excerpts from this book. 

One of those things was the example in the beginning when Turkle took her daughter to see the Darwin exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History. How the children reacted to the turtle make me feel mixed emotions. Yes, it isn't good to bring this turtle away from its natural habitat to a museum but their reasoning is odd. They don't care about the authenticity of the turtle. But, instead think that having a robot would be better because the turtle is just going to sit there and do nothing. This idea of simulated animals even continued at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Visitors preferred robotic crocodiles that displayed archetypal crocodile behavior  to the biological ones that generally kept to themselves. I think that the notion of authenticity is leaving with the technical revolution. This reminded me of something I read in Film Theory class. Walter Benjamin  is a film theorist who wrote about how the reproduction art is taking away the art's aura. "Historically, works of art had an ‘aura’ – an appearance of magical or supernatural force arising from their uniqueness (similar to mana). The aura includes a sensory experience of distance between the reader and the work of art. The aura has disappeared in the modern age because art has become reproducible." I think that technology's ability to reproduce as taken away the aura and authenticity making people prefer to use the reproductions because its easier and what they are used to now. 

Another thing I took from the reading, was in Chapter Fourteen about attention. When Turkle quotes a sophomore girl in high school saying that instant messaging is like being on cruise control or automatic pilot, I found that to be incredibly accurate and very insightful. Things like IMing and texting allow us to multitask and since truly multitasking isn't possible. It just divides our attention. I think its a interesting point that we long for "the pleasure of full attention, coveted and rare." I personally remember my parents were always busy on their iPads while trying to hang out with me, writing emails on their phones, etc. I do think it is very damaging to kids to have to compete for the attention of parents because they are there in person but mentally not paying attention. It's hurtful. I've noticed,especially during the media fast, that I do this and the people I hang out with do this. None of us are truly paying attention to each other until we put our phones down. It's damaging to personal relationships and I think Turkle's point should be heard more and implemented.