Essay Analysis: 'No Need to Call', Free Example

In the essay on 'No Need to Call,' Turkle discusses the current trend in communication where individuals prefer texting to making calls. Although the role of technology in conversations is debatable, Turkle reveals convincing arguments about the shortcomings of technology in reducing face to face communication, introducing isolation, reducing the time committed to intimate interactions and preventing meaningful interactions by hindering the expression of emotions. Importantly, Turkle also addresses counterarguments including that texting provides time to think about communication messages, and it allows family members to connect and to have online intimacy.

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Turkle affirms that face to face contact is diminishing in the current society. Satel argues that 'teenagers flee the telephone'/perhaps more surprisingly, so do adults' (Turkle506). With the current complexities in work environments, most individuals argue that they do not have the time or they are exhausted, and they cannot make a phone call. The young are ahead of old in embracing communication technology since the teenagers were exposed to the technological advances at an early age.

Turkleargues that communication technology contributes to a sense of seclusion. The advance of emailing, instant messaging and texting have added to the change from the use of a telephone to ask simple questions to their use in a significant part of the communication process. Today, phone calls are reserved for communications with close family members, and they are less used 'outside of this circle' (Turkle507). The phone has the effect of making connections to look serious. However, texting eases the complications of communication, and an individual does not have to promise more than they can deliver.

Communication technology makes individuals commit less time for intimate relationships. Audrey is among the affected children since her mother spends too much on the phone and she has less time to show attention to her. Audrey affirms that 'it could be four days since I last spoke to her' (Turkle516). However, Audrey cannot criticize her mother because she always finds herself texting while she is with her friends.

Texting makes it difficult to express emotions thus hindering an individual desire to make meaningful connections. At other times, texting introduces the tendency to engage in selective conversations. Tara prefers to meet Alice in person to pass the news about the demise of her sister. Tara became upset with the fact that they had been communicating with Alice through emails and Alice had not informed her about her sister's death. Alice affirms that 'I didn't think it was something to discuss over the email' (Turkle 516). Tara realises that she missed to realizes that her friend was in sorrow because the communication about dinner plans was through the phone. At least by noting a difference in her friends' voice. Tara felt sorry that Alice missed a chance to confine her feelings after their meeting turned out to be an argument about her position as a confidant.

Social media platforms provide individuals with an opportunity to shape their desired identity, and it thus eliminates the role of friends in helping an individual to develop their self-concept. Individuals post what they like about themselves in the social-networking profiles. Most of the people desire to feel that 'their lives are up there' (Turkle 512). Individuals portray their perfect lives on Facebook. As a result, friends do not get to intervene in their lives when they are facing challenges.

Moreover, friends do not have a chance to correct an individual behavior since it only happens when they are aware of one's weaknesses. Similarly, internet technology destroys meaningful interactions. Texts provide an individual with the ability to communicate during the suitable time and the 'freedom not to talk' (Turkle508). The present generation prefers texting since an individual can think before conversing but the truth is messaging might not work while immediate feedback is necessary.

In spite of the above shortcomings of internet technology, texting presents teenagers with a chance to argue better compared to a call. Audrey explains that in a call 'there is less bound-ness to the person.' (Turkle 510). Texts are vital to ensuring boundaries and reassuring distance that does not exist in calls. Primarily, when communications follow the undesired direction, an individual can easily cut off or redirect it. Importantly, an individual can control the manner they desire the conversation to start or end.

The internet helps the shy individuals to gain confidence since the receiver does not have to see the struggles that they go through to put their messages across. Screen communication prevents shy individuals from undergoing humiliation, 'it is a place to hide' (Turkle506). Hiding promotes the ability of individuals to open up. It was a common condition in the psychoanalytic tradition where the health providers shielded patients from the analyst gaze with the aim of promoting free association.

The is a current trend involving online intimacy, and it allows close family members to share experiences that they would not share in a face to face communication. Through online platforms, family members can share reports, poems and reflections' (Turkle 521). It is now common to learn about the life of a family member from an online blog. Trey learns about the pregnancy of her brother wife through his online blog, 'Trey brother did not forget him or show preference to the family members' (Turkle 521). Blogging has now become a part of individual intimate life.

To sum it up, texting and emailing are replacing face to face conversations. Indeed, the value of meaningful interactions is diminishing since talks do not allow individuals to express their emotions. Although, proponents of internet technology argue that it enables individuals to confine, the shortcomings of the same are overwhelming such as people are now living isolated in the real world but connected on the internet.

Works Cited

Turkle, Sherry. No Need to Talk. Pp. 506-523.