Free Essay with a Letter to Sherry Turkle

Thesis: Despite the numerous benefits that are associated with technology and its advancements, there is a great need for us as human beings to re-establish how much we depend on it to reinstate the intimacy with one another.

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Dear Sherry Turkle,

After reading your essay "Alone Together," I cannot help but relate to every instance in the article. It is with no doubt technology, has in so many ways, changed how we as human beings relate with one another. Instead of creating and maintaining personal and intimate relationships with one another, people have instead, constructed their own inner lives. In my opinion, I believe that human beings have particularly become too much dependent on technology and this has taken a psychological toll us, made control and convenience a priority and to a broader extent, diminished the expectations that we have of our fellow humans. This being said, despite the numerous benefits that are associated with technology and its advancements, there is a great need for us as human beings to re-establish how much we depend on it to reinstate our intimacy with one another.

Firstly reading through your essay constantly prompts me to think about two very renowned poems, "The Telephone" by Maya Angelou and "9773 Comanche Ave" by David Trinidad. Similar to your essay, the two poems categorically emphasize on technology as being an essential tool. For instance, in the poem "The Telephone," Maya Angelou begins by describing the telephone as well as how important it is to the subject desires. She states that "It comes in black and blue, indecisive beige. In red and chaperons my life. Sitting like a strict and spinster aunt spiked between my needs and needs" (Angelou). In this regard, Angelo uses the metaphor of a sewing aunt so as to describe the role of a telephone in bringing people's social lives together. In a similar regard, Trinidad, in his poem "9773 Comanche Ave." explains about the nostalgic feelings that come up when one remembers their home, which is a place of warmth and comfort. With the advancement in technology, Trinidad tries to compare the modern-day f google maps to what was used to in the past. He states that "Half a century later, I barely recognize it when I search the address on Google Maps and, via "Street view," find myself face to face-" (Trinidad).This, in essence, is an indication that Trinidad makes use of Google Maps, which are from the modern day technology to show its importance to the subject desires, which in this case, is to confirm the nostalgic and good memories of home.

Additionally, with reference to the two poems, I totally conquer with your contention that we, as human beings have gotten to a point where we expect a lot more from technology than we expect from one another. However, as Trinidad and Angelo put it, there is no amount of technological advancement that can replace the intimacy and the relationships that characterize the human nature. In Angelo's work, she states that "Its needle sound does not transfix my ear or draw my longing to a close" (Angelo). According to her, despite the fact that the telephone can crotchet people's lives into neat arrangements, it does not draw her longing to a close and hence does not offer a certain kind of satisfaction that is only attained through a physical connection with another human being.

This is also exemplified in Trinidad's poem where he states that "Half a century later, I barely recognize it when I search the address on Google Maps [...] I click to zoom: light hits one of the windows. I can almost see what's inside" (Trinidad). This section of the poem mirrors what is exemplified in your book that critiques our self-attained technophilia that solves most of our problems but does not bring about the satisfaction that is attained from our relationship with other people. More fundamentally, through his nostalgic childhood memories and his experiences in the modern day using google maps, Trinidad clearly shows a difference of how he perceived the place back in the day and how the place looks like today. Through this comparison, he can draw a form of the emotional need to feel the comfort and intimacy that he felt back in the day. Besides, these lines in the poem indicate that the beautiful and intimate memories of his childhood are now gone with the present technology, and as a result, he makes use of the same technology to visualize what his childhood home could look like in the present and still hope it has not changed from his past.

In conclusion, I believe that the most significant correlation between your work and the two poems, "The Telephone" and Trinidad's "9773 Comanche Ave," is seen in the superficial and emotionally lazy relationships natured by technology whose consequences are to disregard and treat other people as objects. Maya Angelo exemplifies this by stating that the telephone is usually busy, "crocheting other people's lives in neat arrangements, ignoring me, busy with the hemming of strangers' overlong affairs or the darning of my neighbors' worn-out dreams" (Angelo) Trinidad on the other hand, affirms this by stating that "Half a century later, I barely recognize it when I search the address on Google Maps" (Trinidad).

Works Cited

Angelou, Maya. "The Telephone by Maya Angelou." 19 June 2013, acupofpoetry.tumblr.com/post/53369711847/the-telephone-by-maya-angelou.

Trinidad, David. "9773 Comanche Ave. Poem by David Trinidad - Poem Hunter." PoemHunter.com, 1953, www.poemhunter.com/poem/9773-comanche-ave/. Accessed 14 Feb. 2017.

Turkle, Sherry. Alone together: Why we expect more from technology and less from each other. 1st ed., Basic Books, 2012.