Journal 5 "Can You Hear Me Now"

Sherry Turkle presents the case that perhaps with our increasing technological savvy and sophistication, we are alienating ourselves as real individuals. She feels people are becoming more concerned with their virtual identity and ignoring their real identity. Moreover, the speed with which we receive and send messages is not allowing for proper time to think and process the information. She mentions that young children feel a sense of security in being tethered to their parents or guardians via cell phones and text. She laments the fact that many will express intimate thoughts to strangers knowing that the other person can't know their real person. She also describes the annoying nature of being put "on pause" when somebody you are engaged in a conversation with accepts a cell phone call or text. I have seen this with my own kids. My son will sit fixated on one of several games for hours, completely mesmerized by the action as if it is real life. My other son is a text-junkie. He can barely keep his phone charged all the time. Numerous times he will have a group of friends sitting around my family room and not a word is spoke as they are all texting other kids. I think the future will obviously determine if the effects of becoming virtual people actually disrupts or discourages meaningful social interactions.

Question 1:
Turkle uses the word avavtar in her article, what does this mean?

A couple of things, an avatar can be an electronic image that someone creates usually in a computer game setting whereby this image can be manipulated by the computer. It allows people to act out various scenarios which may or may not represent their real lives. She also uses avatar as a reference to individuals who anonymously take the place of their real identity and express themselves intimately to strangers in personal pages or social networking sites.

Question 2:
What does Turkle mean by self-splitting?

A form of multi-tasking where an individual engaged in one activity will split from that activity to attend to something apparently more pressing such as a new email, text or phone call. It is common practice and actually fairly rude as the person now being ignored in favor of the more urgent info is discarded for a period.