With the amount of technology we have nowadays and the increase demand of new technology, people are engaging progressively in virtual communication substituting physical communication in order to avoid face to face confrontations with other people. According to Turkle, "We discovered the network-the world of connectivity-to be uniquely suited to the overworked and over-scheduled life it makes it possible." Text messaging has dominated and taken over phone calls and other means of communicating and interacting, making it the primary communication method. Sending a text message instead of making a phone call is also a more frequent approach since it is easier and takes less time according to Turkle. Texting gives us the power to be in control and keep people at a safe distance, in Turkle's words "Texting offers just the right amount of access, just the right amount of control." As a result, we are building and we are building certain "distance" that we need in order to relate and interact with others. We have also become obsessed with having our phone in our hands all day. Turkle gives a guy she had a conversation with named Randy as an example. She mentions how during their entire conversation he had his phone in his hands. He would put it away for a couple of minutes, and a moment later pull it out and go in it. Turkle explains how we can become paranoid and feel disconnected from the world if we put our phones away for just a couple of minutes.
Turkle makes a really good point since people reach for technology all the time to simplify their ways of living. Making big personal announcements such as weddings and engagements through e-mails instead announcing it personally is becoming more common in my family. A lot of people do this is order to avoid making phone calls and to save up time in general. In Turkle's words, "But when technology engineers intimacy, relationships can be reduced to mere connections.
