Alone Together Blog Post

1.     Could online interactions successfully replace in-person interactions?

No I don’t think that we as human beings, or our society could function if online interactions were to replace in-person interactions. I found an interesting study that describes how baby monkeys do without interaction:

“He happened upon the findings in the mid-fifties, when he decided to save money for his primate-research laboratory by breeding his own lab monkeys instead of importing them from India. Because he didn’t know how to raise infant monkeys, he cared for them the way hospitals of the era cared for human infants—in nurseries, with plenty of food, warm blankets, some toys, and in isolation from other infants to prevent the spread of infection. The monkeys grew up sturdy, disease-free, and larger than those from the wild. Yet they were also profoundly disturbed, given to staring blankly and rocking in place for long periods, circling their cages repetitively, and mutilating themselves.

In a later study on the effect of total isolation from birth, the researchers found that the test monkeys, upon being released into a group of ordinary monkeys, “usually go into a state of emotional shock, characterized by . . . autistic self-clutching and rocking.” Harlow noted, “One of six monkeys isolated for three months refused to eat after release and died five days later.” After several weeks in the company of other monkeys, most of them adjusted—but not those who had been isolated for longer periods. “Twelve months of isolation almost obliterated the animals socially,” Harlow wrote. They became permanently withdrawn, and they lived as outcasts—regularly set upon, as if inviting abuse.”

I think this study shows how dangerous life without human interaction can be. People can go crazy. I think making online interactions our top priority will be dangerous for us as people, and our society.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/03/30/090330fa_fact_gawande

2.     Can robots/technology replace human interactions?

From the same study above, there was another great example that pertains to this question. At first, Harlow and his graduate students couldn’t figure out what the problem was. They considered factors such as diet, patterns of light exposure, even the antibiotics they used. Then, as Deborah Blum recounts in a fascinating biography of Harlow, “Love at Goon Park,” one of his researchers noticed how tightly the monkeys clung to their soft blankets. Harlow wondered whether what the monkeys were missing in their Isolettes was a mother. So, in an odd experiment, he gave them an artificial one.

In the studies, one artificial mother was a doll made of terry cloth; the other was made of wire. He placed a warming device inside the dolls to make them seem more comforting. The babies, Harlow discovered, largely ignored the wire mother. But they became deeply attached to the cloth mother. They caressed it. They slept curled up on it. They ran to it when frightened. They refused replacements: they wanted only “their” mother. If sharp spikes were made to randomly thrust out of the mother’s body when the rhesus babies held it, they waited patiently for the spikes to recede and returned to clutching it. No matter how tightly they clung to the surrogate mothers, however, the monkeys remained psychologically abnormal.

Even in this study it shows how the monkeys needed a mother-a personal interaction. The cloth dolls were better for the monkeys than the wire dolls. They felt the cloth and it felt more like a real interaction than the wire dolls. I think this is also true for us. Typing a status, getting likes on a photo, or tweeting out something witty will never replace the satisfaction that comes from other humans in in-person interaction: a kiss, a hug, a high five, a smile. Those interactions give us as human beings a deep sense of belonging.

3.     Are you in control of your electronics, or are they in control of you? Give some examples.

I feel like these days our electronics are in control of us. Every thing we do we do with a phone in our hands, headphones in our ears, or a laptop on our laps. We are always connected-sharing instagram pictures, updating our statuses, tweeting etc. The first thing I do every morning is check my email and get on instagram, and the same thing before I go to bed. It is that constant connectivity that controls our day, our habits and our lifestyle. How many times do we see people get up and leave class because they are getting a phone call? While yes that call may be very important, the buzzing device controls us and becomes more important that class-than school! Electronics are definitely controlling us.

4.     Do you prefer texting or calling?

I prefer different methods of communication depending on when and where I am. It is so convenient to send a text when we are in groups of people. Or when I don’t have time to make a phone-call. But when I need to catch up with someone or relay a lot of information I feel like a phone call is my preferred method of communication.

James Goldberg	A BYU English professor. Has a relatively small following on Twitter (113), but a large influence in the blog world-- Mormon Midrashim
Salman Rushdie	An extremely famous author who has connections with the writing world.
Margaret Blaire Young	A BYU professor, a Filmmaker, an author who has a lot of influence in the Mormon writing sphere.
Brandon Sanderson	60k twitter followers, writer
Eric James Stone	A Nebula Award winner and Hugo Award nominee, Eric James Stone has been published in Year's Best SF and Analog, among other venues. He has over 1,000 twitter followers and has influence in the professional writing community.
Jonathon penny
Steven peck
Mormon Lit Blitz	A Mormon Literature contest
Fire In the pasture	Blog for Mormon Poetry
By Common Consent	5,100 Twitter followers