01st Nov2012

Are We Ever Alone?

by tatianabenjamin
  1. Place: In Sherry Turkle’s, “always on”, she stated, “ A “place” use to compromise a physical space and the people within it. What is a place if those who are physically present have their attention on the absent?” (155-156). I think this brings me back to earlier discussions of a place requiring bodies.  From this quote we see places having bodies but these bodies are still not present. So for me place requires intentional connectivity but at the same time it can represent escape. Place provides comfort because you have created that place, or given meaning to it through the ways that you interact with that place.

Questions:

  1. While reading Turkle’s chapter, I was intrigued by her discussion her discussion of relationships. What type of relationships are we creating? What do these relationships actually look like through our devices? How do they carry on into our daily lives? I think this brings us back to explore the relationship between the actual and virtual. The distinctions are helpful and require us to understand at what point do we completely cross over to the virtual? Is it a possibility that our relationship can remain completely in the actual or the virtual?
  2. I also appreciated Turkle’s use of the word “pleasure” for describing our desires for technological connection.  I found this important because the devices we use to connect are often seen as negative. People are always questioning why someone would want to create another life or place to reside in virtually. I think pleasure allows us to understand some deeper dynamics of corporeality and more generally our lived experiences. Why are technological devices pleasurable? Is it just about creating a new self? Or does it allow people to be visible in places/spaces where they were once rendered invisible?
  3. Is it possible to discuss the online realms we create that make us feel more like ourselves our subconscious? Is it possible that being technologically connected makes the subconscious tangible? Maybe through our creation of new places and the recreation of ourselves we are tapping into a subconscious that allows us to feel more like ourselves in the virtual?

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