Summary Of Eliminating The Human By Sherry Turkle

Esther Akerewusi

Ms. Asselin

ENG4U

23 April 2018

Thesis: Advancement in technology has made it easier for people to discard their various relationships just as they discard replaceable objects. 

Annotated Bibliographies:

Byrne, David. "Eliminating the Human." MIT Technology Review, vol. 120, no. 5, Sep/

Oct2017, pp. 8-10. EBSCOhost,

library.brontestudents.ca/databases.

In the article, Eliminating the Human, the author takes up the impact of technology on social interaction especially that of the isolation of us humans. The author gives thirteen examples showing evidence of technology with an initiative to remove as much human interaction as possible just for the sake of simplicity and efficiency. For instance, the author’s local CVS

has been teaching its staff how to make use of automated checkout machines which would eventually replace them in the nearer future. Simultaneously, customers are also taught how to do the work of the cashiers. This embodies the idea of customers literally walking in and out of stores with no human contact whatsoever needed. The effects of minor human interactions presented in this article include unhappiness, generation of lesser tolerance as well as dissension. The author further states that us humans do not prevail as isolated beings but rather exist as inmates of networks and relationships and therefore disposal of humans would only make us less complete both as people and as a society.
This current informational article was sourced from an MIT Technology review. The author, Davide Bryne, is not only an author and director but also a multi-instrumentalist and principal songwriter who was the founding member of America’s new wave band, Talking Heads. In this article, he directs his theory of the unspoken underlying agenda of technological development creating a world with lesser human interaction towards us readers, the audience. This reliable source provides evidence for advancements in technology making it easier for people to discard their various relationships. Though the purpose of this article is clear, Bryne contradicts the article a little bit towards the ending of the article when he talks about how getting rid of humans in many aspects in life could be a good thing.

Fischetti, Mark. "The Networked Primate." Scientific American, vol. 311, no. 3, Sept. 2014, pp.
82-85. EBSCOhost,
library.brontestudents.ca/databases
The Networked Primate is an interview with Sherry Turkle that discusses the impact of technology on human beings, how it has shaped social interaction including the value of human relationships and possible solutions too.

Turkle speaks about how the use of social technology can cause us to ignore the people around us. She states that the use of social technology has caused a great lack of tolerance for being alone especially for children who need solitude and makes it harder to form relationships. She also claims that people start to objectify others and the use of social technology could even disrupt families too. She makes reference to how dinner used to be an utopian deal in the past but presently, Facebook is the new utopia. Turkle claims that it has devalued empathy as people are now okay with robot companions and these interactions are dead ends. The problems she identifies include the development of an autonomous self, crowdsourcing decisions and also difficulties in getting into any relationships. The resolution she came up with covered having sacred spaces strictly for conversation, asserting our dominant culture and she also has hopes that the children would lead us out of

this.
Sherry Turkle is a sociologist of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). During an interview with Mark Fischetti, a senior editor at Scientific American, she focuses on how people interact with technology, how it affects human relationships and also how social networking is making us less social. Turkle uses great evidence from her own personal research done on people of various age groups to show how people treat others like objects and neglect personal relationships. This interview is a source of high quality that highlights how advancements in technology have made it easier for people to discard their various relationships.

Wilkie, Helen. "Communication Technology Keeps Getting in the Way of
Communication!." Canadian Manager, vol. 27, no. 4, Winter2002, p. 14. EBSCOhost, library.brontestudents.ca/databases.
The article, Communication technology keeps getting in the way of communication, is about how technology was designed to improve communication but in reality is rather disrupting others from connecting with each other more effectively.

The President of a major technology company interviewed in this article gave two reasons as to why she was worried about the people who sat right next to each other communicating through emails rather than personally confronting each other. Firstly, e-mails do not portray a person’s tone or feeling although they pass across messages quite rapidly in an efficient manner. Also, the use of emails to communicate rather than have a personal confrontation gives room for people to avoid any interpersonal relationships at the workplace. The article further discusses the misuse of teleconferencing and how occasionally, one-on-one meetings are actually the most fitting options to settle issues that would not result in any later misunderstandings. This misuse of technology causes the author to envision a generation where social skills are

absent.
Helen Wilkie, a communication specialist and an active member of the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers, explains how the misuse of technology could be used as a barrier to communication amongst peers in this educational article. She interviews CEOs of various organizations that share the same perspective on technology in the business world as her with a purpose to back up her opinion on the impact of technology. This credible source reinforces the statement that advancement in technology has made it easier for people to discard their various relationships because the use of e-mails presented in this article is used as an escape from having any interpersonal relationships in the workplace.