Always on / Always on You - The Tethered Self

Always on /Always on You - The Tethered Self
Date: 5th July 2020/Sunday

This is a pretty interesting blog about a topic that is close to all of us, our tethered self, our addiction to our digital devices. What is our relation to our devices? Why do we always hold them in our hands? How does it affect our relations to kids, family, friends, colleagues etc How has this digital relation affected out face to face relations? Why do we feel drowning the moment we don't see our devices around? How is this affecting relations between teachers and students? How is this relation affecting the teaching and learning in schools? The idea of the blog came from a paper written by Sherry Turkle titled, " Always On Always on You - The Tethered Self". 

Have you often noticed how tethered you are at times? For example if someone want to reach out, whats the common response? You could find me on my cell phone, connect with me through email, find me on social media, Instagram, Facebook , Twitter etc, or you could email me any time. What happens as a result is, you are intentionally introducing your peers, friends colleagues whoever wants to connect to a new online self of yours which has now emerged as a result of your hand held digital device. For most people this online self and real self are two different entities existing at the same time, one is online and the second in real life. In reality we are tethered to our always on - /always on you communication devices and the things /people we manage to reach through them.

Turkle (1995) describes the rapid movements from the physical to the multiplicity of digital lives through the metaphor of cycling through. He further says that with cell technology rapid cycling stabilizes into a sense of continual presence. So , whether you are at work, or at home, both ways your connections matter, a phone call from a colleague or a family member will keep you alert and you will be continuously connected to the connections. 

We are all seeing a new form of social connectives whether its at home, in a park, bus station, train station , in a cinema, in work places, people appearing as talking to them selves, shouting,laughing, giggling, crying, angry etc They seem to be little concerned with what is happening around them. I am sure you would have often noticed, while sitting together in a launch watching tv with family, family members are more tethered to their devices and to what that device that brings to them. People come together at a station, they seem to be among a lot of people, but they are connected to people miles away on their tethered devices. Face to face connections seem to dim away.

Sherry Turkle mentions of a Greek Director who places students in Greek Universities, he says that students are not actually experiencing Greece because they are busy talking online with  their family and friends. She mentions her daughter during a trip to Paris that she missed the connection with Paris because of being on the phone. Her daughter says keeping in touch with her friends is comforting for her and that her text mails to her family make up a digital diary for her. Its a common observation students are seen responding to emails during classes, people are seen chatting on messages during conference sessions, people seen emailing during meetings, kids playing games on mobiles during lunch or dinner time, people talking and emailing at the same time. SO, people are present in several places at the same time due this tethered device.

She uses a term phoning it in, means you are important enough to deliver your work remotely. The location of your presence is not that important but but because of connectivity we can see multiple patterns of deployment. In one pattern you are connected to the world, and in the other pattern you look face to face connections in search of more creativity and privacy. Our device basically represents us. Its a badge that we hold, the list of networks, the list of contacts, the list of services we use, the list of virtual friends on social media etc. 

At times the social networking sites or the online virtual gaming sites provide people a chance to change their reality , question their beliefs, make new friends, change their avatars, look different, look for new relationships, explore a different world etc. For example second life offers people the opportunity of a parallel life (including a virtual body, wardrobe, real estate and a paying job). One of the users of Second Life says, shes knows that there is always someone to talk to, she still does not feel a commitment, it gives  them a day of renewal every day. Since 1990s MUDs (multi user domains) and MMRPGs (Massively multi player role playing games) presented their users with the possibility of creating characters and playing multiple games.People often used the lives on screen to resolve their real issues. 

Online social world provides new materials, the plain people can present themselves as sharp, extroverts could present themselves as introverts. People can create their dream houses which the might not be able to create in reality. They create virtual gardens. They do jobs that require great responsibility. So what we understand here is that people are not tethered to the device but to the gratifications, acceptations, opinion they receive through the device from their online connections. With second life you could look like a model, where designer clothes and completely hide your actual reality, I think that's deception and it results in mere frustration for the user because their reality never matches the online virtual reality. 

The chat online does introduce a different kind of a talk culture, but what it does not promote is self reflections or critical analysis. Its just a talk with emoticons and short incomplete messages often resulting in mis communication, confusion and mis understandings. Most of the time the key messages are lost in the middle of the conversation. What gets conveyed was never intended. I think it effects students speaking abilities and writing skills. But if used appropriately the same technology could be used to improve these skills like Grammerly helps in improving grammar, whats app voice could be used to share important voice messages, lessons summaries could be shared among students, google docs could be used for building cooperation and collaboration , by working on joint documents. Skype could be used for calls to discuss topics, share feedback, give suggestions, virtual online communities like edmodo, schoology , google classroom could be used to establish online classrooms where students interact and learn from each other.

These tethered devices are addictive at times, we get accustomed to receiving immediate response and messages, and if we don't get it we react bad. This happens most of the times. So, its  like affecting behavior and the attached emotions. We feel more in control of things because of these devices, which might not be true in many cases. Tethering takes our time from other activities  that demand undivided attention and distributes it activities that take up our time like text messaging and emailing. Stone (20606) calls this additional time as the continuous partial attention). It affects the quality of our thoughts , because the thought and actions are done with less mind involved in it. 

Katz (2003) says that when we acknowledged our tethered states, we get time to look at to what and whom are we tethered. We respond to telephone calls, we respond on messages, we respond using websites, social forums, web pages, blogs etc Its no longer dependent on a typical telephone set. We get to talk with artificially intelligent bots online, we use bots to train doctors, teachers, soldiers etc. A wide range of entities we interact with human or non human is available to us. I am writing this blog online, using my laptop, I am sitting in a launch with family, watching TV at the same time, I will share it online through my social websites and blog, I am writing this blog in my home town Peshawar, people from all across the globe can access it online and comment on it. 

Sherry Turkle mentions observing a woman abandoned by her son in Boston , being treated by a robot. The therapeutic robot Paro can make eye contact by sensing the direction of the voice, is sensitive to touch and states of mind, it can sense whether it is stroked gently or harshly. Such robots have proved to have a positive effect.  The woman strokes Paro and tell him its tough outside, and in doing is actually comforting herself. The author further adds that this kind of moment has a strong therapeutic potential. She calls them relational artifacts, its about pushing some Darwanian buttons (making eye contact) that make people respond as if in a relationship (Turkle 1999). Ever tried chatting with a mindful bot. They cant sense your physical gestures but can surely respond to the emoticons or responses that have emotions. 

In his book, "Computer Power and Human Reason, Joseph Weizenbaum wrote about his computer program Eliza, that engaged people in a dialogue similar to a Rogerian psychotherapist (Weizbaum 1976). He says it mirrors ones thoughts and was always supportive. He was concerned his students wanted to talk more knowing it was just a program. Eliza seemed as an interactive diary, people chatted, vent out everything. It was a desire to be listened I guess and nurtured as far as humans are concerned. Though very little have been explored or experienced regarding these relational artifacts in actual life.

How can schools work with such technologies hovering over our heads? how can they ensure the technology is used appropriately and meaningfully. I was thinking if schools could introduce mindful bots that could chat with kids about their day at school suggest mindful exercises. But that raises a few questions about the face to face interaction with a school councilor, will students share same thing at both fronts, what are the benefits? does every student have a mobile? are they tethered to the device already? how tethered are students and parents actually? a survey could give us a glimpse of how tethered we are to the devices?will we survive a shock if our tethered device falls in a pool of water? how can their be a balance between technology use and real life communication with people?

We are all tethered to some extent and its important that we pause and think how can we balance work & life with technology. Worth pondering!

Enjoy reading till my next blog post soon InnShaaAllah.

Regards and prayers

Sheeba Ajmal

References:

1. Turkle, S. (2006). Always-on/always-on-you: The tethered self. Handbook of mobile communication studies.

2.  Weizenbaum, J. (1976). Computer power and human reason: From judgment to calculation.

3.  Weizenbaum, J. (1976). Computer power and human reason: From judgment to calculation.

4. Turkle, S. (1999). Toys to change our minds.

5.  Turkle, S. (1995). Life on the Screen: Idein the Age of the Internet. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London.