How has social media changed how you relate to people around you?
Being in a program that consumes a large number of hours in the day, social media has taken a new role in my life as a “life-line” to stay connected. It has helped me to stay connected and current linking to friends and family. While, much like what Turkle expresses in the video, remaining in control of my time and the amount of that said time that I need to spend in order to maintain a connection and relationship with my friends and family. That being said, I am definitely guilty of it but that does not mean that I like it. I’ve drawn a new attention, when having the time to meet someone in person, to put away my device and really engage and interact with the person I am with. I think that it is important to put away your phone to create that genuine connection. Yes, it’s great that we are all learning to multitask and we can all do 12 things at once. But while doing those 12 things, are we making the ones we are with feel valued and heard? It is important to maintain a level of respect for individuals by putting away devices and really hearing people. I can certainly say, I do not want my daughter or husband to remember me looking down at my phone or at my computer – I want to have those special moments when she is so excited to come home and tell me what happened at school, or even when she comes home crying because she did poorly on a test – I want her to see me as someone that listens and cares, not someone only looking at my phone. It is important to create balance between the two.