Please enjoy this special edition to the blog by Marnie Ward, Citrus County 4-H Extension Agent!

CONNECTED, BUT ALONE.

Ted Talk by Sherry Turkle  (https://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together )

Are you Posting??Tweeting??Hashtagging??Tagging?? – forget about Kevin Bacon and 6 Degrees of Freedom.  We are now a nation of friends – my friends, your friends, let’s just all be friends – all of us coexisting in the Twittersphere, connected by 140 characters, until someone gets their “Tweepi” in an uproar.

What’s your device of choice – an iPhone, iPad, Android, Smartphone, Tablet, iWatch, etc., etc. ???  How do you stay connected?  How do you manage your social network?  Oh dear, did I forget the “snaps”?

Let’s check the Dinosaur Chronicles, aka Webster’s Dictionary, for a definition of social media.

Social media – electronic communication … to create communities ….to share information, messages, content, etc.

Sherry shared several profound observations for us to ponder:

1. Social media provides an illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship. The “poster” of content has control, they can be heard, they are never alone and they share only what they want others to know.
2. Being alone feels like a problem that needs to be solved and the solution is connecting on social media.
3. Electronic communication allows editing, deletion and re-touching; whereas, conversation is raw, spontaneous and dare I say? – honest.

So, what does this mean for self-actualization?  Are we short-changing ourselves by creating a profile of a person we want others to know?  Is that profile the person we really are?

Consider, Sherry’s new paradigm:

I SHARE, THEREFORE I AM

RATHER THAN

I AM, SO I SHARE

I enjoyed this TED Talk and if you have the time I encourage you to watch it also J

-Marnie