In the book Love 2.0: How Our Supreme Emotion Affects Everything We Feel, Think, Do, and Become, Barbara Fredrickson discusses the biological aspects of love and the connections that people can have through interactions with each other. Fredrickson aims to increase the reader’s knowledge of how love works and she even tries to change the way people view love. She wants people to take a more static and scientific approach to connections between people rather than the emotional mystery that people view it as now. Sherry Turkle on the other hand wrote the book titled Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other where she tries to uncover how human interactions and connections work by observing human responses …show more content…
to companion like robots. The purpose of her research is to get a better understanding of the human psyche, and of human interactions and attachments in general. Humans are a complicated species and different people have different thoughts as to what special aspects of humans give them their distinctiveness. I argue that the interactions between individuals and the formations of societies are integral parts of human consciousness making it unique and giving people their defining characteristics. Humanity is a difficult concept to describe. The complexities of the mind are just that, complex. They are so complex that the entire field of psychology is solely devoted towards using a scientific approach to understand the human psyche. It is a concept so intuitive that we do not even have to think about how our minds work to enjoy our daily lives; yet it is so complicated that when we do study how it works, the results are often unexpected or illogical. The way Turkle describes the intellect of a Furby can illustrate how complicated the inner workings of the mind can be; she says, “Even those who do not think a Furby has a mind — and this, on a conscious level includes most people — find themselves in a new place with an upside-down Furby that is whining and telling them it is scared. They feel themselves, often despite themselves, in a situation that calls for an ethical response” (Turkle 475). Rationally, the cries and wails of a toy should not institute any response in a human, but according to Turkle’s research people were still affected. Interactions even between humans and inanimate objects arouse peculiar responses, however interactions between just inanimate objects would be fruitless because there is no living being which could be affected. Therefore a source of humanity’s uniqueness derives from the fact that they can be emotionally moved not only through interactions with other people, but also through interactions with robots. As far as the topic of society is concerned, humans tend to form groups to make tasks easier. For example, if a person had to go out, hunt for food themselves, collect water themselves, and create a shelter by themselves, the work could all become very taxing for a single individual. However, if a small group of people worked together to complete all the tasks, not only would they get done faster, but the tasks could get completed more effectively than if one individual were to complete them all. Expanding this idea to an entire society of people, individuals can all specialize in certain areas to produce the best possible results. They could also compete against each other leading to mutual growth and improvement. This personal growth only adds to the individuality of each person, and the overall lives of people become much easier and much more efficient for everyone in the society. Many animal species form communities and societies for the purpose of dividing tasks. They could use strength in numbers to overcome their obstacles, whether the obstacle is gathering food, gathering water, creating shelter, or even defending against predators. Interestingly enough, humans are said to have evolved from a common ancestor of apes; yet ape children develop at a faster rate than human children, suggesting that humans need the love and companionship of their parents more than other animals. Clearly, there must be some important reason why humanity relies on long development periods where they must be nurtured by others. Society and companionship themselves are an integral part of human nature. Humans rely on and depend on others. For example, a baby depends on its parents for several years before it is fit enough to go out into the world and survive by itself. However, even when a child does not necessarily need its parents, in human society the child still stays with the parents and usually relies on them for taking care of its basic necessities. Fredrickson says, “When an infant and parent do click, their coordinated motions and emotions show lots of mutual positive engagement. Picture moms or dads showering their baby with kisses, tickling their [baby] … These parents are superattentive” (Fredrickson 116). There is a bond that develops between the parents and the child which causes them to stay together even after the child has developed and can survive on its own. Other living creatures tend to “leave the nest” as they grow mature enough to survive on their own; however, humans go against this idea, further contributing to their unique consciousness. Interactions with other humans are an essential part of human consciousness. Most people would probably not be able to survive a few hours with literally nothing to do, and no mental activity. If they were locked in a small room with nothing in it, they would end up developing some type of mental activity to keep their brain stimulated. This reason explains why many people who do not interact much with other individuals interact more often with technology as some fake type of social stimuli. Turkle’s research suggests that even though people interact with machines, the stimulation is still similar enough to the real thing to be sufficient. Specifically, she says, “When active and interactive computer toys were first introduced in the late 1970s, children recognized that they were neither dolls nor people nor animals. Nor did they seem like machines … Computers were intelligent machines; in contrast, people were emotional machines” (Turkle 463). Humans need some version of interaction with something that can pass off as a human to maintain their sanity and mental health. This need for stimulation through interactions is another intrinsic part of the human mind. The survival aspects of communicating with other humans is an interesting topic to consider.
“Why would humans communicate with each other in the first place?” is a good question to consider when exploring this topic. The biggest and most significant benefit of communication is the fact that communication is the primary medium of transferring knowledge and information between people, leading to advancement throughout all of humanity. Through a basic survival lens, people could talk to others to tell them where there might be a potential food source or a potential water source. People would also communicate and warn each other about predators. Then, as language evolves and times change, people would communicate less about biological needs and more about ideas. Through the sharing of ideas, multiple people could work together to bring such ideas into fruition, which is still relevant today where people share an idea they have hoping to inspire others to share their vision and work with them to accomplish their goal. Communication at this point in human history would also be used as a method of connecting with other people. “Brain coupling … is the means by which we understand each other … Evidence for synchrony in two people’s insulae suggests that in good communication, two individuals come to feel a single, shared emotion as well, one that is distributed across their two brains” (Fredrickson 112). The connections formed between people are an integral part of what makes us human, and we owe part of our own individuality to the interactions we have with other people. The world as we know it today would not be possible without communication and sharing information between other people. Through communication, people can band together, form societies, and rely on these societies to make their lives easier; and in doing so, society becomes a deep-seated part of human life and
consciousness. Clearly, humans are a distinct species. Even though humans are constantly using their minds, they barely understand how it works. Human interactions within the scope of society, and even just human interactions in general, are a critical piece of human consciousness. Humans are different from other animals in different ways such as in their behavior towards robots, their unusual maturation patterns where they stay with their parents for longer than needed, and through their formations of societies as a means to make tasks easier and to provide an easy network to connect with others. By understanding what makes human consciousness unique, people can attain a more cultivated perspective of the world around them.
Sian Beilock is the author of this novel, the information written by her would be considered credible due to the fact that she is a leading expert on brain science in the psychology department at the University of Chicago. This book was also published in the year 2015 which assures readers that the information it contains is up to date and accurate. The novel is easy to understand and the author uses examples of scientific discoveries to help make the arguments more relatable. Beilock goes into depth about how love, is something more than just an emotion, it derives from the body’s anticipation. “Volunteers reported feeling
Communication is an essential part of nature. Humans have adopted and became a custom to language as a part of our daily social lives. Verbal communication is used since day one; exchanging information as babies to our guardians when were in displeasure can even be a form of communicating. Being social is something that will never parish, thus being so important in our lives, it is nearly impossible to go a day without some sort of communication being shared. Even though everyone has different traits of the amount of socialness one might have, being shy and not being very social, can still give off certain communication cues that others can knowledge. There are non-verbal cues and visual aspects to help us communicate better and help us understand
In The New Humanities Reader edited by Richard E. Miller and Kurt Spellmeyer. We read about Barbara Fredrickson the author of the book “Love 2.0” copy right (2013). Barbara Fredrickson is a psychologist who show in her research how our supreme emotion affects everything we Feel, Think, Do and become. Barbara also uses her research from her lab to describe her ideas about love. She defines love not as a romance or stable emotion between friends, partners and families, but as a micro-moment between all people even stranger (108). She went farther in her interpretation of love and how the existence of love can improve a person’s mental and physical health (107). Through reading
Love has been instilled as the "sexual desire...or blood ties of kinship...special bond and commitment" by society and mainstream culture and the new knowledge simply interrupt a well established and accepted idea. The reality of the biological aspects gives a demeanor of an attachment of two minds or two bodies parse rather than embodiment of love between two individuals. The experimental reasoning has not only stripped the attraction but sentimental aspect of love . It is often said that when people fall in love their hearts just know and they have a special feeling and that is what most people try to find, the emotion of love. The biology of love seems to detach the emotion from the individual by making love a matter of the brain rather than the heart. Furthermore, the notion behind "love at first sight" looses all meaning; as Fredrickson quotes from a collaborator, there must be "a true meeting of the minds- a single act, performed by two brains" , in essence the brains have to be coupling in order for the connection to truly forge and thus making "love at first sight" a thing of the past. The new insight forces an individual to
It has always been part of human nature to form a bond with another person. These bonds may be as trivial as friendship or as strong as love. Love is very complex; it takes a lot of effort and insight to form love with another person. As complicated as love is, why people form these bonds is even more complicated. There is the more biological reasoning, supported by Barbara Fredrickson in “Love 2.0”, that says people need it to survive. As seen in Susan Faludi’s “The Naked Citadel”, love can also be formed to either replace an old love or guide one or both people. Continually, in Sherry Turkle’s “Alone Together”, people form bonds of love because they love what they nurture. Since love is ingrained in human nature, there is often little choice
Human are still social, technology just changes how human socialize. Technology is everywhere; it has changed every aspect of human’s lives, the way they read news, listen to their favorite music, buy books, book their holidays, even the way they stay in touch with friends and family. Technology rules everything and most importantly how and why humans communicate, and see the world. In “Alone Together”, Sherry turkle, a psychoanalytical psychologist, discusses how technologies changes the way humans relates to each other. She argues that technologies promises to let humans do anything from anywhere with anyone. But it also drains humans as they try to do everything everywhere. Therefore, humans often seek out to robots and technologies to
Social interaction is the very basis of social life and the foundation of society. Further growth and progress in society would not be possible without interactions between individuals. However, the presence of an individual as a function of society does not bind them into a social unit. It is when a group of people cooperate that allows society to develop. Therefore, interaction is the very essence of social process. Furthermore, communication is the medium of interaction. The ability to communicate with other individuals is an important element of human life in terms of interacting and developing our society. Individuals thrive from success through the approval of others. In communication, an individual develops from the views and opinions of another person. It is important to consider that as a result of society's development, our system of communication also changed. While maintaining the traditional way of communicating such as physical interactions, individuals turn to other forms of socializing through the use of video games and the internet.
Love is many things; it has not one description that can be pin pointed. Love can be described as the openness of a relationship, the sexual attraction between partners, or can be seen as pure attraction to each other’s personalities. In Jonathon Haidt’s book, The Happiness Hypothesis, he writes about the types of love there are and which he believes is the most important. There are two main types of love, companionate and passionate love. Haidt defines true love as companionate love, having more importance in a relationship than that of passionate love. Companionate love is perceived as a stronger love than Passionate love, because of a better understanding in companionship and passionate love will not be everlasting. The idea of companionate over passionate makes sense, but media has formed a different outlook on love that has warped the genuine imagery of love.
Over the course of Human evolution people have been coming up with new and inventive ways to communicate with one another. Some of the earliest evidence of human communication is in a cave in France. In 1940 researchers found paintings from the Paleolithic area showing humans communicating by hunting in a systematic fashion(Boundless textbook) . This shows just how far back people have been trying to work together. Now jumping forward to 2016 people today have amazing technologies that will allow them to get in touch with loved ones overseas in a matter of minutes. But how exactly did we go from drawing pictures on our walls to hi-speed internet? Well one man’s invention revolutionized the industry of communication allowing generations to
Love is a level of emotion too difficult for a strict definition. Love has existed since the beginning of time and it still exists even in the hectic society we live in today. Over the years, the involvement of technology within every day life and romantic relationships has grown. We can even see how it has begun to affect these relations in “Cat Person” by Kristen Roupenian and in a more dramatized sense, the film, The Entire History of You, by Brian Welsh, where more advanced technologies are used to even break relationships. A common concept that flows through both of these pieces is the overuse of technology.
It is the way to interact with each other can help find the strengths and weaknesses that each member have and it allows the team to help each other and creates a comfortable atmosphere for the team to work with each other. During our first team meeting, we start to know each other by sharing information and we do it by communicating with each other. One would talk and the rest of the members would listen to the person talking and that how we learn more about each other. Every single meeting we had, we always communicate with one another whether there is a question, a conflict, or just wanting to talk, as a team we would listen no matter what. For instance, one of our meetings was about selecting a topic for the final team project, as a group we discuss among ourselves what ideas are good and we fully go deep in details. Communicating with one another helps each of us get different opinions and ideas from one and another, where we can be more creative as team. “We don’t send meaning; we create it based on our experiences, background, and culture” (Beebe & Masterson, 2014). We communicate like this because we can understand on how each of us think and hearing from each member in the team
Conversation is ultimately very beneficial to a community. It helps people to form bonds with each other and to make strangers feel like friends. This type of talk engages the mind and can improve relations with other people. Conversation brings together people that have common interests, but also welcomes those of different interests or
Since the time when man first learned to express how they felt in written form, by drawing or writing, we have tried to communicate with other people. First, it was the prehistoric man with their conceptual cave drawings showing what animals to hunt, how to hunt them, and how to cook them. Soon that form took to hieroglyphics, in which the Egyptians would tell stories about battles they had won and about new pharaohs that had been born. This picture form soon turned in to words in which the Romans would communicate with one another. So it went, each generation progressed more and more, until it was the 20th century.
Interpersonal communication is very important in everyday life. It helps us build a relationship with another, also it helps us to satisfy our physical needs, identity needs, social needs and practical goals. Communication lets people exchange their feeling and information through verbal and non-verbal communication through social media or face to face communication. Communication can be effective and ineffective depend on the individual communication skills. The ways we communicate with another can be influenced by family, friends, significant other also within the culture and region where we stay. Each person has a different set of rule to communicate with another, so this is how miscommunication happen. There are some expectation and way
Communication is a source of delivering messages form one to another. Through communication people share their ideas, feelings, thoughts and emotions. Man carries out his needs and also helps others by knowing each other.