iPhone Connection Craziness

In her book Alone Together and in the chapter titled “growing up tethered,” author Sherry Turkle talks about the changes that the connected world has brought about.  The title “growing up tethered” refers to the pervasiveness of this new technology in everyone’s lives, especially young people, and how it is reshaping interactions and the way people function in society.  One of the main focuses of this chapter is the effects of the ubiquity of smart phones and texting, which is providing a new way for people to interact and is in some cases, taking over the way these people interact.  She talks about how young people who are growing up with these fantastic new devices in their hands are becoming inseparably attached—or tethered—to their phones, shrinking away from the thought of a life without constant connection.  These cell phones have become their worlds, as they send tens to hundreds of texts a day to friends and family, immediately sending off any thought or idea in a whirl of clicks and Bytes.  Many can no longer divorce the idea of themselves from the idea of them with their phone.  Use of cell phones has become almost an addiction, where messages and updates are being check in every conceivable location, from the dinner table to the car.

In the Huffington Post opinion article Call Me Crazy: Crazy for My iPhone by Melinda Wetzel, Wetzel admits to the exact same craze that Turkle describes.  Announcing that initially, Wetzel herself was a skeptic of the phone—or in this case smartphone—craze, she has since admitted to becoming a fanatic.  Claiming to once have secretly laughed at those “people who routinely careen into oak trees and ill-fated produce towers while attempting to walk and text at the same time,” she now checks her  messages and updates religiously.  This situation is a common one for Wetzel: “ In the dark of predawn, I abandon the warmth of my bed and stumble across the room, drawn to the soft glow of my beloved phone -- a moth to flame.”  Drawn in by the news and inane Twitter updates, she describes how, “patently delirious I was when I first discovered Instagram.”  She knows that it is a “crippling obsession” but does not see herself stopping any time soon.

Melinda Wetzel displays nearly identical behavior to that of the young adults that Turkle interviews for her book.  Constantly checking updates, finishing her sentences, playing word games all cross the divide from Turkle’s subjects to this suburban mom.  The near perfect mirror between Turkle’s studies and Wetzel’s own actions show that Turkle’s findings have done nothing to change as time progressed, and if anything have spread to more and more people.