Agenda Item: “Technological optimists think that computers will reverse some of this social atomization, touting virtual experience and virtual community as ways for people to widen their horizons.” - Turkle, pg 479.
I would call this an interesting idea, but one that lacks support in my eyes. In the next line Turkle poses the question as to how sitting alone in a room typing on a computer will ever bring people closer together. This is where I am coming from as well. Virtual friends may somehow fulfill the needs of non-social individuals, but I personally prefer human interaction. We are at a point of retreat from society where laziness and the ease of ordering things online are dominant. I know people that prefer ordering pizza online for the simple fact that it means they don’t have to interact with someone on the phone.
These same people fight about who is going to “deal with” the pizza guy when he arrives. I can see what Turkle means about the bypassing of the neighborhood having to do with our current attitudes regarding community. Independence and isolation are a running theme for some individuals with the innovations of technology.