By Cristián Parodi
Connection is replacing conversation.
The appearance of mobile phones in the 1990’s brought us a new communication experience unseen until then — talking on the phone anywhere. The newness was that we could talk to whomever we wanted, with the freedom of doing it at any moment. This new fashion of talking on our mobile phones on the street was fleshed out in the cities. What began as a fashion then turned into a trend that quickly settled in society.
What We Used to Do Then Was Talking… A Lot of Talking.
Later the first great innovation came out: Sending SMSs, commonly known as ‘texts’. With time we started redefining our vocabulary since writing on our phone keyboards was troublesome and we needed to type as little as possible — emoticons appeared and texts shortened. Despite all that, this trend installed itself and became part of our habits.
What We Used to Do Then Was Talking and Exchanging Texts.
We were in the age of PC. Then the Web was born. Flickr, Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and many other social networks to exchange contents appeared. In order to access these sites, however, we needed a physical access line — a cable — to Internet, a desktop PC and a chair. The habit that we incorporated then was having a spot in our homes — a fixed spot — from where we used to surf the Web.
What We Used to Do Then Was Talking and Exchanging Texts on the Street and Surfing the Web from Our Homes.
Moving forward on technology timeline, we get to Smartphones. Mobile Internet was born. Blackberries, iPhones, Samsungs and other devices brought along applications to access — at any time and anywhere — those sites that we used to visit from our PCs. Now we not only send texts on the street, but also we chat with our friends, tweet, upload photos to Flickr, search on Google or watch videos on YouTube. PC is not as indispensable as it used to be and, with the appearance of iPad and tablets, the beginning of its end was heralded.
What We Do Now Is Chatting and Texting. And, sometimes, Talking.
…
The End of Conversation: “I Don’t Recognize the Voice of My Best Friend”
In this way, our Smartphone was incorporated to the anatomy of our body as an extension of our arm. We do not go out without it anywhere — detaching from it is impossible. It is essentially a content-all-consuming device that has installed a new — somehow strange — habit: its supposed main feature, allowing us to talk to others, is the one less used by people.
How does this strange behavior impact on us?
Sherry Turkle works as teacher of Social Studies of Science and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in California, and she also manages the ‘MIT initiative on Technology and Self.’ The purpose of her research is reflecting upon the subjective side of technology in the sense of how it affects the social and psychological aspects of people.
On her book ‘Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less from Each Other’, she describes the new behaviors made up as a result of the connectivity of mobile phones, smartphones, texts and chats. Turkle says that people increasingly function without the face-to-face contact with each other. On her recent article published on the New York Times she tells about several of these new behaviors, where surely many of us feel reflected:
• We live in a technological universe in which we are always communicating. And yet we have sacrificed conversation for mere connection.
• The new habit at our homes appears to be the family gathered at the table, but texting and reading e-mails.
• At work, executives send SMSs and chat during meetings.
• We are moving from conversation towards connection.
• Always-on/always-on-you-device offers three powerful fantasies: that we will always be heard; that we can put our attention wherever we want it to be; and that we never have to be alone. Indeed our new devices have turned being alone into a problem that can be solved.
• Human relations are complex, messy and demanding. We have learned that with technology we can take all this away and make it simpler. The passage from conversation to connection is part of this. But it is a process where we deceive ourselves. And what is worse is that, with time, we seem to forget that there is a difference.
• We expect more from technology and less from other people: technologies increasingly seem to provide the illusion of having company without the demands of a relationship.
• “I think, therefore I exist” has turned into “I share, therefore I exist”. We use technology to define ourselves by sharing our thoughts and feelings as we’re having them. We used to think, “I have a feeling; I want to make a call.” Now our impulse is, “I want to have a feeling. I need to send a text.”
• We think constant connection will make us feel less lonely.
And as a conclusion, Sherry Turkie reflects: “We are so busy communicating that we often don’t have time to talk to one another about what really matters. We can demonstrate the value of conversation.” And her concern for describing this new social reality proposes ideas to fight it: “Just as Fridays are casual, managers should introduce conversational Thursdays.” It is unusual that we are thinking about strategies that make us recover the habit of talking.
My conclusions:
Technology proposes simplicity, connectivity and mobility, but we pay the price of talking less. Some say that the function makes the organ: talking less, in a limited way, also affects our capacity to reflect and elaborate complex thoughts.
I don’t know if someday we’ll stop chatting and being ‘full-time on online mobile.’ But what will definitely happen is that we will have lost the ability to recognize the voice of our friends, which silently and unknowingly, were replaced by eye-catching Facebook profiles because connection is replacing conversation.
In situ – ESTHER CAPECE 2011
Illustration: “In situ” by artist Esther Capece
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