Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other Alone Together : Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other Book Trailer Houston Baptist University Spring 2014 EDUC 5306 Dr. Dawn Wilson presented by Dez Monique Johnson Darcelle Lofton Yolanda Plear Lorena Hobdari

click the “video camera”to view this TED Talk by Sherry Turkle

Alone Together Summation A wake-up call from a cyber-expert: our use of technology is fueling disturbing levels of isolation, leaving us incapable of distinguishing between true human connection and digital communication.

Are we too “connected” to our electronic devices?

ELIZA Eliza is a computer “therapist”. Turkle is concerned that people want to confide in a machine with their deepest thoughts. Is it ok to trust a machine with life decisions?

Robotic Pets Turkle uses a lot of children and elders as test subjects. She discovers that the more “life-like” a device is, the more popular it is.

Growing up Tethered There are infinite chances to type and retype and edit and undo before an email or Instant Message is sent, each time possibly allowing the author to sound more confident or upfront than they actually are in real life. However, as stated in the chapter, this is only an illusion of privacy.

Life with Robots The idea of being able to go inside the mind of a human to transfer feelings and program them at just the right timing into the robot’s responses, so that the human using the robot as a companion does not feel as though the relationship is one sided and cold. The robots created go from having just sounds that respond, to speech, to actual movements in their facial features and sometimes going as far as to develop personalities.

Are you a cyborg? We are all cyborgs now as we are constantly connected through technology somewhere in our lives.

References Images http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DLnqmRjrO2I/UT3FIlLHQdI/AAAAAAAAOgo/i_V_-0lqHZM/s640/Kids+And+Technology.jpg http://inc.ucsd.edu/images/newsitem_10262010/movellan-with-qrio.jpg http://cdn3.list25.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/nigel-ackland.png http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.npr.org%2Fassets%2Fbakertaylor%2Fcovers%2Fmanually-added%2Falone-together_custom-8b41fa4f801654c75baacc2e603abcb275392338-s6-c30.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.npr.org%2F2012%2F10%2F18%2F163098594%2Fin-constant-digital-contact-we-feel-alone-together&h=1420&w=948&tbnid=86MxSPUf5ojQfM%3A&zoom=1&docid=iJ6Jf4EEw75CWM&ei=5t5eU-TZFIueyASp8YKgBg&tbm=isch&ved=0CK0BEDMoUDBQ&iact=rc&uact=3&dur=1362&page=4&start=69&ndsp=25 tamagotchi].Retrieved April 26, 2014, from URL (amazon.com) [lady with tamagotchis]. Retrieved April 26, 2014, from URL (huffingtonpost.com) [girl with furbies]. Retrieved April 26, 2014, from URL (diytrade.com) [purple furby]. Retrieved April 26, 2014, from URL (info.roosterbank.com) [zhu-zhu pets] . Retrieved April 26, 2014, from URL (thepartyanimalblog.org) [boy with AIBO pet]. Retrieved April 26, 2014, from URL (en.wikipedia.org) [kids with AIBO pet]. Retrieved April 26, 2014, from URL (nbc.news.com)

References Videos http://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together