Alone  together    

Sherry  Turkle  (2011)  in  Alone  Together  provides  deep  research  on  how  

people  interact  with  robots  and  how  Network  affects  human  relationship.    In  

general,  this  ethnographic  research  provides  deep  analysis  about  the  role  of  

technology  and  the  effects  of  it  on  society  related  to  relationship  and  intimacy.  

These  are  two  major  topics  that  I  could  clearly  see  in  the  book.  They  are  robotic  

moment  and  networked.  In  my  reflective  paper,  I  am  going  to  explain  my  reflection  

of  the  reading  based  on  two  primary  themes  “better  than  nothing”  and  “keeping  the  

Sabbath”    

In  part  one  about  robotic  moment,  the  author  provides  result  of  her  

observation  or  ethnographic  research  on  how  people  interact  with  robots.  From  the  

observations,  there  is  one  event  that  is  interesting.    It  is  mentioned  in  the  book  that  

there  is  a  conversation  by  fifth  graders  about  robots  and  grandparents  in  Miss  

Grant’s  class  that  ended  up  with  a  question  from  the  children:  “Don’t  we  have  people  

for  these  jobs?”  (Turkle,  2011)  Further  in  the  conclusion  the  author  added  some  

questions    “are  there  people  to  take  care  of  us  if  we  become  ‘inconvenient’?”  “Why  

do  we  want  robots  to  care  for  us?”  for  some  people  they  might  think  that  it  is  “better  

than  nothing.”      

This  question  seems  simple,  but  if  we  tried  to  put  ourselves  in  the  situation  of  

the  elders  who  were  cared  by  caregiver  machine  then,  it  will  be  a  difficult  question.  

When  I  imagined  about  elders  who  were  cared  by  machine,  I  imagined  myself  who  

were  in  that  situation  talking  to  a  robot  hopelessly.  If  that  happened,  that  could  be  a  

scariest  thing  in  my  life.  I  might  have  lost  my  sanity.  I  hope  it  will  not  happen  to  me  

in  the  future.  In  this  case,  no  matter  what  the  situation  will  be,  I  still  trust  people  

than  a  robot.  There  is  a  hope  when  I  talk  to  people.  I  can  feel  that  I  am  alive  and  I  am  

not  alone.  There  is  a  research  mentioned  in  the  book  that  when  some  senior  citizens  

were  given  an  option  between  hanging  out  with  robot  and  talking  to  a  researcher,  

they  preferred  talking  to  one  of  the  researcher.  In  this  case,  I  learn  that  robots  

cannot  replace  human.  Perhaps  for  some  people,  they  may  prefer  robot  than  human  

because  many  times  they  found  out  that  humans  tend  to  be  careless.  In  this  case  

they  do  not  trust  human.  Then  in  the  future,  when  many  people  trust  robots  than  

human,  perhaps  there  will  be  no  more  good  people  in  this  world  that  makes  people  

trust  each  other.  The  author  said,  “When  we  lose  the  “burden”  of  care,  we  begin  to  

give  up  on  our  compact  that  human  beings  will  care  for  other  human  beings.”  

Another  thing  that  I  learned  in  part  one  is  that  people  tend  to  choose  robot  as  

their  companion  because  there  is  a  disappointment  with  others  in  their  lives.  This  is  

a  form  of  escaping  from  the  broken  relationship  that  they  have  with  other  people.  

Therefore,  it  is  important  that  we  maintain  good  relationship  with  others.  We  better  

try  to  put  ourselves  in  others’  shoes.  This  is  I  think  a  “Golden  Rule”  in  the  Christian  

Bible  that  are  similar  to  most  religion  in  this  world  -­‐  “So,  in  everything,  do  to  others  

what  you  would  have  them  do  to  you”  

In  part  two,  the  author  explained  about  the  effects  of  networked  to  the  young  

people.  She  said,  “The  network’s  effects  on  today’s  young  people  are  paradoxical.  

Networking  makes  it  easier  to  play  with  identity  but  harder  to  leave  the  past  behind  

because  the  Internet  is  forever.  The  network  facilitates  separation  but  also  inhibits  

it”  further  she  explained  that  in  during  her  interview  with  a  sixteen  year  old  

teenager,  Sanjay  have  got  over  a  hundred  text  messages  in  his  phone.  Thus,  he  said,  

“I  can’t  imagine  doing  this  when  I  get  older”  then  “how  long  do  I  have  to  continue  

doing  this?”  

The  story  above  indicates  that  some  teenagers  realized  the  problem  they  

have  with  having  social  live  via  phones  or  network.  This  also  happens  to  most  of  

people  who  live  in  this  “flat  world”  the  term  used  by  Friedman  (2007)  to  describe  an  

era  people  can  easily  connected  with  others  in  a  distance.  This  is  an  era  where  

distance  will  not  be  a  matter  for  communication  around  the  world.  In  this  era,  it  is  

difficult  for  us  to  put  away  our  cellphones  or  computers  for  a  while.  We  live  in  a  

situation  that  the  network  makes  us  busy.  Thus,  in  the  book,  Sherry  suggests  that  we  

need  time  for  reflection.    According  to  her  that  is  the  time  for  solitude.  

This  idea  makes  me  think  about  “keeping  the  Sabbath”  –  the  fourth  rule  in  

Ten  Commandments  in  the  bible.  In  a  broad  sense  this  rule  recommend  us  to  enjoy  

the  moment  we  live.  In  this  case,  we  enjoy  the  time  with  our  family,  enjoy  the  fresh  

air  outside  while  we  are  jogging,  amazed  by  the  beauty  of  a  sunset  on  the  beach,  

enjoy  playing  with  kids,  without  being  distracted  by  text  messages,  emails,  phone  

rings,  or  other  technology.    

I  remembered  I  was  excited  when  I  had  a  vacation  with  my  friends  to  Seattle.  

We  spent  a  day  there.  At  that  time  we  visited  Space  Needle,  museum  of  flight,  

museum  of  science,  and  some  other  places.  I  took  so  many  pictures  with  my  friends  

without  realizing  that  we  have  spent  most  of  the  time  taking  pictures  on  every  

beautiful  and  important  place,  but  we  did  not  really  enjoy  that  moment.  Perhaps  we  

were  too  excited  to  document  all  events.  The  photographs  can  tell  people  that  we  

have  visited  interesting  places  in  Seattle,  but  if  they  asked  me  to  describe  in  detail  

what  are  beautiful  things  that  you  found  in  Seattle  I  would  say  that  I  need  to  visit  

Seattle  once  again  because  I  have  missed  many  important  moments  there.  

Therefore,  after  reading  the  book,  I  learned  about  two  things.  First,  robots  

will  never  replace  human.  However,  if  we  think  that  they  can,  then  the  question  that  

we  should  answer  is  that  “What  are  we  missing  in  our  lives  together  that  leads  us  to  

prefer  lives  alone  together?”  this  will  help  us  to  know  the  exact  problem  that  makes  

us  trusting  robots  than  other  people.  Second,  never  forget  to  “keep  the  Sabbath”  

         

References:    Turkle,  S.  (2011).  Alone  together:  Why  we  expect  more  from  technology  and  less  

from  each  other.  New  York:  Basic  Books.    Friedman,  T.L.  (2007).  The  world  is  flat:  A  brief  history  of  the  Twenty-­‐first  century.  

New  York:  Picador.