Alone Together- Chapter 1

I have been reading the book by Sherry Turkle called Alone Together Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other.

It appeals to my Human Behavior Profile side of the brain and Viking Husband's Computer Engineer side of his brain. 

In Richard Louv's book Last Child in the Woods he talks about how much "screen time" children are absorbing themselves in during the day. Children are going outside less and less these days. He has linked the increase in Attention Deficit Disorder, Anxiety Disorders and even Bipolar Disorder with the inability to go outside and play. It is not uncommon to be walking down the street and observe people and children absorbed in some kind of hand held device. He established very clearly the shift from being outside to being absorbed inside with a computer. I have been asking "Why?" 

Sherry Turkle is a MIT technology and society specialist who has spent the last 15 years exploring societies travel through the digital terrain. In the 15 years she interviewed over 100 children and adults from various social and economical levels. In her book she discovered a growing and unsettling relationship between lovers, parents and individualism and the computers society use. Societies views and understanding on privacy, community, intimacy and solitude have seriously changed.

We now communicate with Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Google+ , Smart Phones, Playstations, Wii, Netflex, emails, instant messaging, and et al. There are now avitars that can be created, computer pets, computer lovers, and soon cyber humans to greet us at the doctor's office. Thirty years ago society asked themselves,  "What are we going to do with these computers?"  Now, society asks, "What don't we do without computers?"