I finished reading Sherry Turkle's "Alone Together". This book tells us the danger of this internet society. Now our society is based on the always-on connection. In a way, our society is controlled by the internet. But Turkle doesn't say that denying that internet society is the best solution. She never says that we are addicted and tries to find a better answer to survive this society. Her steady and serious way of discussion is very interesting to me. How can we survive such a dangerous and severe society? I thought about that a lot.
As Masaya Chiba, a Japanese philosopher says that this world is 'too much connected'. The internet exactly brings us that severe society so it has that kind of negative aspect as Turkle says. Now our communication is based on the telephones made by not our human voices, but by the texts controlling our communication mechanically. Funny games become popular and they delete our time when we can be alone. Such a society doesn't allow us searching our own identities. But I love this internet. If I hadn't it, I couldn't meet various wonderful people such as Judith and other friends. The relationship between me and Judith is 'virtual'? I thought about this a lot.
I also thought about the reason I love reading. This is not written in Turkle's book, but reading books might be a good solution to survive in such an internet society. Reading books is, for me, a dialogue inside myself. And also it can work as a dialogue between me and the author (although it is based on an 'imagination'). If I start reading, I can sink into my world deeply and get separated from LINE or E-mail notifications. At that imaginary place, I can find and catch myself again. Thinking about how to praise reading again might be an important action by reading Turkle's book.
The internet might be a nice place I can become the ideal myself. But if I could become the ideal myself, in the real world it might not be able to work. The more I got into becoming the ideal myself, I would suffer from the gap between the net and the real. How can I survive such a 'magical' world of the internet? Turkle's book gives us that chance to think about such a problem. How to manage the internet with our will, not let it control us? I should think about this problem again with such a point of view.
