Confession Corner

I have a confession to make, rather a truth to be told. I really enjoy searching through and listening to thought-provoking ted talks. Depending on my mood I enjoy this more than youtube, netflix, or even watching a good "ol' fashioned" DVD.

Today I happened across one that caught me dead in my tracks, titled,
"Sherry Turkle: Connected, but alone?"



If you have 20 minutes to turn away from other distractions and listen to Sherry I think everyone can learn something from this talk. Ironically enough it inspired me to write a blog post.

Here's my personal story regarding the evolution of technology and social media in my lifetime. I'm officially in my mid-twenties this year and I did not get a cell phone until the summer after my junior year of high school. The only reason my parents allowed me to is that I had to pay every penny of the cost of that phone. I loved that white samsung flip phone. When I first bought my phone my parents rule was that there were no cell phones at the table, and must be plugged in downstairs by my dads cell phone. I would say the later rule was short lived, as any teenager does to stretch rules as far as they possibly can, and eventually my parents gave in. Soon texting began to be something that people did to communicate. It started with 300 texts/ month plan, then 1,000, then unlimited I could finally text as many times as I want. Around that time "smart phones" started to be a normalcy, and soon I got the first generation touch-phone prior to Samsung galaxy, with wireless and texting of course. Now it's 2014 and I own an iPhone 5 with unlimited text, call, and data where I can use at any time I want even internationally if I am on a wireless network, and be "connected" with a touch of a button. As I watched this Ted talk, some examples of communication and technology she used may have been extreme, however that disconnect between real-life and life online I see everyday, and fall into the trap myself. So as I wrestle with what she is saying I hope I can start to evaluate the boundaries I have in my life regarding my attachment to technology. Maybe one as simply as turning OFF my phone while I am at work, I rarely can look at my phone anyway, and why do I really need to have my cell phone in my pocket while caring for patients, even if I don't look at it even once?

I apologize if this post seems a little wordy and disjointed, but after watching this TED talk it really got me thinking.