Book of the Week:
Review of Alone Together by Sherry Turkle.
Book Review of Alone Together by Sherry Turkle
The main goal of the book,
Alone Together by Sherry Turkle, is to make society
aware of the effects that technology is having on us
as human beings, from a social perspective. Since the
development of computer technology, people's reactions
to a machine, specifically robots, being alive or dead
has changed. It is common knowledge that robots are
non-living things, but when we consider the social
aspects of our interaction with them, our behavior
toward them unconsciously changes to treating them as
though they were alive. It was found that the more
"human" characteristics and responses we implement
into their design, the more we conceive robots to be
real and less non-living. (Turkle, 2011, p.26) The
author then raises the question of whether or not this
may be a concern to us because we do not know how this
could affect our social existence in the future. The
author then poses the question of how this differs
across generations, and its effect on those who were
born in today's era where computer technology is an
ubiquitous part of everyday living.
Strengths
One strength of this book is
that it raises a unique concern about our interaction
with things that can emulate life-like social
behaviors, and analyzes our responses toward them. For
example, the author researched the interaction of
children of different ages (4-16) with the robotic
toys Furby and AIBO. She gave the toys to the children
to keep and interact with over a given period of time.
In all cases she studied, there were varying levels of
emotional attachment to the toy, and because of that
emotional attachment, the children were less likely to
replace their toy with an identical one if it broke or
stopped working. This mostly occurred with younger
children, but was found to be true with some teens as
well. I myself have experienced this feat. While in
high school, I had a Tomagachi and I took really good
care of it until it turned 16 and died. I do not
remember being upset by this, and I reset the
Tomagachi. Soon I became very reluctant to care
for it in the same way I did the first. Eventually it
just died of neglect. What was very surprising was
that even as children got older and their
understanding of what is dead and alive became more
defined, they still reacted to the toys as though they
were actual living beings. Some discussions with
students revealed that they thought it was possible
robots can one day replace a real person, such as a
babysitter or even a teacher!
Another strength of the book
is taking a look at how we have incorporated robots
into our social interactions, using them to fulfill
our social needs. The author takes a look at the use
of things like Paro the robo seal, designed to keep
the elderly company. Paro has been very successful in
Japan where it was introduced. After looking at the
research done on the introduction of Paro, it appeared
that the elderly really enjoyed interacting with the
toy. But a closer look after speaking to those who had
the robot seal, it was found that the elderly wanted
them not for the actual toy itself, but for the
company of the research assistants who brought
the toys. The elderly preferred to have the company of
a real person as opposed to a non-living robot pet.
Here I think this is a generational thing. I
personally do not have an affinity for these more
realistic robot pets because I did not grow up
interacting with this technology. But for children
growing up in an environment where they are exposed to
robots from their very birth, this can have a
profoundly different effect on their social behavior
and their perception of what is alive.
The author also briefly
highlights on sexbots, and having this sort of robot
alternative for those who have intimacy issues. Adults
who cannot find a mate for whatever reason, now have
the option of interacting with "someone" who can
satisfy and address their personal needs.
One last interesting strength
of the book is that it takes a look at the idea of how
our interaction with robots can stimulate negative
behaviors. The robot doll, My Real Baby, is supposed
to replicate the behaviors and characteristics of a
baby. It was found that when the doll was given the
ability to react to abuse, it was more likely to be
abused, so the manufacturers turned off sensitivity to
reduce sadism in children. (Turkle, 2011, pg. 47)
Weaknesses
One of the weaknesses of this
book is that it lacks cultural, ethnicity and class
differentiation. The book does not really address how
someone from a lower social class might interact with
the robot toys as opposed to someone from a higher
class. Also, the same can be asked from a cultural
perspective. The author only discussed Paro in Japan,
but what about other countries around the world? How
do people from other cultures interact with these
life-like robots, and is the interaction significantly
different across cultures? These are some of the
questions that the book failed to address.
Another weakness of the book
is that it is in two parts, but the author does not
really connect the two. The first half of the book
deals with social interactions of robotic devices, and
the second half of the book discusses our increasing
dependence on the Internet and the technologies
associated with it. The second half of the book
discusses the social development of anxiety,
depression and addictive/obsessive behaviors that
develop from being in constant communication with cell
phones, along with using social networking sites such
as Facebook. Separating the two halves was a great
idea, but the author should have done a better job of
reconciling the two at the end.
Implications
The major implication of this
book is that if we do not pay attention to our
increasing interdependence on technology in a social
sense, we might lose part of our individual identity
and more important, our humanity. Relying too much on
non-human, emotionless technology to fulfill certain
socio-emotional needs can possibly have a detrimental
effect on us as a society. This is very important in
terms of not only science education, but education in
general, because the students at a middle and high
school level are going through many physical and
emotional developmental changes which will affect how
they learn. These ideas brought forth by the author
are relevant because, they illustrate the competition
that teachers are up against when trying to
communicate with their students. Teachers are
constantly competing with technology for the attention
of their students.
Application in Teaching
Based on what I learned in
this book, as a future teacher, I would try to have a
balance between the use of technology in the classroom
so that students can access social networking in a
productive manner. I would probably create an online
web classroom so that students will get rewarded for
spending their time learning content that would help
them succeed. I would also try to incorporate a lot of
group work in the classroom to boost face-to-face
interactions so that students can engage in
traditional methods of communication, and not lose
their social skills.
Turkle, S. (2011). Alone together. New York, NY: Basic Books.