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"LONG BEACH, Calif. \u2013 Checking email during meetings.  Shopping on your smartphone in the middle of class.  Texting at funerals.  These are a few of the examples that MIT professor Sherry Turkle offered during her TEDTalk on Thursday, in which she argued that \u201Ctechnology is taking us places we don\u2019t want to go.\u201D\nTurkle, a psychologist who leads MIT\u2019s Initiative on Technology and Self, believes that while our constant communication and social media engagement does make us more connected, it\u2019s coming at the sacrifice of real conversation.  \nAnd she thinks that will have some serious consequences for our relationships, our self-perceptions and our emotions.\nOne major issue, she said, is that when we text, email or post to a social networking site, we\u2019re able to project ourselves as we want to be seen.  \u201CWe get to edit, we get to delete, and that means we get to retouch.\u201D  \nInversely, Turkle notes that a face-to-face conversation \u201Ctakes place in real time and you can\u2019t control what you\u2019re going to say.\u201D\nFurther, with our phones at our constant disposal, Turkle says we\u2019re only paying attention to the things we want to pay attention to.  And that leaves us increasingly disconnected from our friends, family and co-workers as we simply turn to our devices when a conversation no longer interests us.  \nThis creates a situation that Turkle said makes us, \u201Cexpect more from technology and less from each other.\u201D  In the long run, she thinks technology is ultimately headed towards creating a Siri-like program that can offer \u201Ccompanionship without the demands of friendship.\u201D  \nThere\u2019s certainly plenty of data that supports Turkle\u2019s argument.  Surveys showing that we\u2019re increasingly texting and social networking during meal time or in the bedroom have become commonplace.  \nBut what\u2019s to be done about it?  Turkle isn\u2019t calling for a return to the dark ages of pre-smartphone life.  Rather, she says it\u2019s time for us to have a more self-aware relationship with technology.  And in turn, we should do things like create sacred places at home and at work where we leave the devices out.  \nTurkle\u2019s remarks drew an emphatic standing ovation from the TED crowd.  But we want to know what you think: Does technology threaten the quality of our relationships and personal development, or are such fears an overblown perception of a generation that didn\u2019t grow up with digital?  Let us know in the comments."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2012/03/01/social-media-less-connected/>