The Authenticity of Technology

Mckenzi Kerrigan

In Alone Together Sherry Turkle says, “Technology is seductive when what it offers meets our human vulnerabilities. I believe that in our culture of simulation, the notion of authenticity is for us what sex was for the Victorian -- threat and obsession, taboo and fascination" (p.4) Turkle illustrates how in our culture technology can be both good and bad. It can be innocent and fascinating or a threatening and addictive, and like technology the truth can be both fascinating and frightening. Technology can entice its users when we are able to find what we are looking for through technology whether that is information, entertainment, or relationships. This statement can be reflected in the service learning portion of our class because often what we find out through technology, the internet in specific, can seem frightening of off putting, when really that may be false and one would not know except from their own experience involving the matter. I think that living around the Canal people think they know what it is like in that area, but one would not really know unless they go there and are involved so that they can make judgments based on their own experience.

Turkle expands these ideas in the part of the chapter titled “Robotic Moment”. Turkle described her daughter’s reaction at a museum that had real turtles instead of robot turtles, “Rebecca was both concerned for the imprisoned turtle and unmoved by its authenticity” (pg 3). Shocked by her daughters thought that robot turtles would be better, Turkle asked other kids their thoughts and found out that like her daughter many people found that biological animals were not as “realistic” as the animatronic creatures they were used to. Because we live in a culture of simulation, Turkle discovered that “aliveness [seems] to have no intrinsic value” (pg 4).  It is interesting that originally robotic creatures were based off of authentic creatures, and now the robots are seen as more realistic. Our expectations of technology have been growing in meeting our needs and vulnerabilities. What people want to see and hear is what these technologies (or robots) satisfy.

In “Connectivity and it Disconnects” Turkle described how technology makes it easy for us to communicate and disengage ourselves at will. Turkle described a woman Ellen who used Skype to communicate with her grandmother. This section was very similar to many of the themes revealed in the documentary Digital Nation. Ellen described how multitasking took her to another place, and that she was not able to focus on her conversation with her grandma while using other technologies as the kids in Digital Nation were convinced they were capable of. “Ellen and her grandmother were more connected than they had ever been before, but at the same time, each was alone” (pg 14). Often technology is both a help and a hindrance, giving the user what they are looking for but also distracting them from that goal.

“We are increasingly connected to each other and oddly more alone” (pg 19). Although technology allows us to be more connected it is also more distant than authentic connections. Technology does not satisfy every human need for relationships because they promise relationships in which the user is the controller, which is not a relationship at all. Technology raises the question to what a relationship really is and causes people to reconsider intimacy and authenticity. “Romancing the Machine” ties Turkle’s thoughts about technology and authenticity together. “Curiosity gives way to desire to care, to nurture” (pg 18). People’s thoughts continue to move in believing robots are not machines but creatures that can satisfy human’s wants for intimacy and a relationship like a live person can.