04/30 Reflection

The first video I watched was that where Danah Boyd spoke on teenagers and her fascination with the gap between adults and youth. She explains that young people do value privacy but it is different from that of adults, that they are using innovation to achieve this privacy, and that parents/adults are what is stopping teens from getting the privacy they seek. They choose to be apart of society and be in public, but being public is different from that and young people are trying to find a separation from that. Online it is easier to make things public than trying to keep things private, which is connected to choice of medium. Privacy should be changed to be understood as the control of a social situation not information; this is what youth are navigating and becoming successful in. One of the biggest challenges online is “collapsed context,” and managing it depending on platform. Boyd goes on to explain multiple examples of “separating universes” and using media as a “real-time activity,” to prove to the audience that young people are trying to work around the “publicity” of media so it works for them. Youth connect differently than with adults, which she refers to as “social stenography” so only those “in the know” know where to look. Youth are accustomed to supressive adults in their lives, so they try and keep them from meaning but not content; youth are learning how to achieve their own privacy even in public (online or not). Adults are too obsessed with surveillance, and have limited youth from access to public spaces. The second video was a Tedx Talk by Sherry Turkle on how technology shapes modern-day connections and relationships. She believes technology is taking us places that we don’t want to go, and that it changes who we are. She explains that we remove ourselves from certain emotions and escape into technology, and that when people are together they’re still separate– being “alone together.” This is detrimental to self reflection and personal connection to others. People nowadays believe face to face conversation because it’s “raw” and you can’t control what you’re going to say, but over media you can retouch everything. She states that now we “expect more from technology and less from each other becuase it appeals to us most when we are most vulnerable,” like a shield. Loneliness isn’t a bad thing,because the more you fear it, the lonelier you will be– you have to be comfortable just being with yourself. This will increase self-awareness and self-reflection, and we need to redefine human connection and just listen to others entirely.

I agree with some of the points Turkle made, in the sense that personal connection is much less rare now that technology is reigning in the world. It hurts to see that people would rather use their phone than talk to people, which is something I personally try to defer from. Even so, I love meeting people onilne or in person, but in person is just different. Meeting someone face to face and having a conversation is so important, because you get to fully connect with someone through vulnerability and “realness.” I often say the I wish I lived in the 80s when my parents were in their 20s, because I wish it were the norm to call someone on their house phone or meet people in person to speak with them. That raw connection is what I seek when I make friends or meet new people, because behind a screen it never feels real enough. Yes it’s convenient that we can text and snapchat and significant connections can be made over media platforms, but being with someone in person is so much different. I do admit that I use my phone when I feel “alone,” like she states, but I have been trying to fix that. At the same time, it’s hard to not be on my phone as much because it’s normal to be online all the time, which makes it feel like a job. I think that her point of self-awareness and vulnerability is significant because we don’t need to stop using laptops and phones, we just need to know when and where to use it.

Did anything in the Tedx video resonate with you/ was there something stated that you realized you did? Does this make you want to change how you use technology and interact with others?