Turkle’s Reclaiming
conversation reminded me of the movie “Her.” The movie takes place in the
future, where artificial intelligence technology is fully developed. In the
future, an operating system (OS), which has its own consciousness and is able
to develop into a full entity, is sold as a commodity. The movie is about a lonely
divorced man named Theodore who buys the OS, and falls in love with it. Theodore
thinks Samantha, the OS, is the only one that truly understands him, even
better than his ex-wife. Their relationship, however, falls apart after
Theodore realizes that Samantha is talking with 8,316 more people, while having
a conversation with him.
The future will look similar to what the movie suggests. Google
and Amazon came up with Alexa and Echo, the AI assistants, while developing
wearable devices. Soon, we will have more than social media apps and smartphones
in our hands. The more smart OS in more comfortable device will emerge and we will
both be connected and disconnected at the same time. New tech, such as Google
glasses, will search and show information about the product a friend is talking
about as he or she speaks. While connected to the virtual world, a conversation
with a friend may be disconnected for a second. As the new media suggest and
recommend entertainment, and a place to socialize, people find virtual world a
comfortable place to spend time. In the virtual world, making conversation to a
stranger is easy as tapping in and tapping out.
The problem with talking on the web is that it is easy to
tap out. Turkle pointed out that many students find email to be a comfortable
method when they communicate with professors. She also observed that the number
of people breaking up through a simple text messaging is increasing. People
turn to electronic devices when they have to confront difficult feelings. It is
easier to deliver hard feelings without looking someone in the eye. Like Turkle
argued, feeling of empathy seems to diminish on social media (communication on
electronic media). If you are not satisfied with the person you are talking to,
or the topic of conversation, you can easily end the conversation by clicking
close button, logging out of the app, or simply putting the phone down. Unlike
face-to-face communication, people don’t have to put effort into the
conversation they don’t like. This not only puts them into a bubble of
like-minded people, but also affects people’s patience.
In the previous discussion, we talked about how technology
enabled people to multitask. Now people use several devices at the same time,
and the contents are cropped into a bite size so that it is easier for people
to consume the content. The shorter duration of the content is what aggravates
problem with empathy. When people read tragic stories on a book or a paper,
they had enough time to consume the information, and to develop a feel or
thought for the story. However, on new type of media, shortened yet diverse
news and entertainment contents are constantly fed and blocks people from
developing ideas. I also have an experience of reading a sad story on Facebook,
which brought me to tears. That feeling, however, didn’t last a minute because
the following content had funny stories with cute puppies. Likewise, fast
developing technology deprives us of the ability to develop our thoughts and
feelings. If people’s way to communicate continues to be selective and
superficial, the future illustrated in the film Her is soon to come. Because
people will only want to communicate with someone/thing that only agrees with
him or her, artificial intelligent OS will be a perfect solution to keep people
accompany.
However, is conversation on the virtual world genuine
communication, or even genuine feelings? Samantha asks Theodore how someone can
share a life with other person. Theodore answers reading each other’s work and
having influence on each other’s life was how he shared a life with his
ex-wife. Samantha asks again how he influenced her. Theodore answers they came
from a different background but “a sense of just trying stuff and allowing each
other to fail and to be excited about things… It was exciting to see her grow
and both of us grow and change together.” The value of genuine conversation is priceless.
With so many scholars showing concerns for the new technology and the media, I
wonder if one day new media will be considered detrimental service to mental
health. Once, cigarette was considered cool but many health-efficient people
avoid smoking, and smoking itself is considered bad. Some people already give out
testimonials on how great it feels to be free from new media. We never know,
but one day, the culture that deeply immerses people into the waves of content
may also be considered something wrong. Only then, we will reclaim our conversation.