Topic 2: The Internet

• Sherry Turkle talks about us becoming more "connected" than ever before, and yet we may be setting ourselves up to become more isolated. Share your thoughts on Turkle's talk, including a few EXAMPLES. Have you, your family and others "reclaimed" areas of your home, work or play for conversations--or declared those spaces device-free zones? Have you taken steps to ensure that you are really listening to others?

The talk from Sherry Turkly resonates deep with me. I am glad that I watched her Ted Talk after I posted Topic 1. It is a bit refreshing to validate my own thoughts and to have some new thoughts as well. I think that where before listening to the talk, I wrote off the idea of social media completely, now I can see a few more benefits that will enhance the life of solace so familiar to me. For example, watching the Ted Talk was enlightening and yet when I think about it- it was in the form of digital media. Having information like that presented is a breath of fresh air and to me the message is do not overuse it, become to reliant on it, or expect from it to replace real human contact. As a student of psychology for the last 12 years myself, I resonate with the ideas as she speaks of such as, "We use it to remove ourselves from our grief". When she said that we think (by using media) that we never half to be alone, I thought to myself- we though no matter what the circumstance are always alone and that in the sense she speaks of - we can be alone in a crowd of people. In my home, my sons use devices, my spouse use devices, and as for me, I use devices to communicate emergencies and/or business affairs. 90% of the time, I only will allow real human face to face conversations. I have understood for along time that solitude is where you find yourself. To be candid, we have not as a family declared spaces to be device-free zones but I sure plan to now. In so far as listening- that is one of my best assets and I listen deeply to what is and what is not being said.

• When it comes to digital gaming.....how many games have you downloaded to your smartphone or computer? What games do you most enjoy playing( e.g. Fantasy baseball ? Words with Friends ? Candy Crush ? League of Legends ?) and WHY?

I have to say that there is no way to provide a long answer to this. I do not like digital gaming, have never downloaded one to anything and I do not enjoy or even have the desire to play any games. I do enjoy old fashioned, in-person pinochle or cards though or Monopoly or Chess and even Yahtzee. Online gaming seems so stressing to my eyes (as I have watched others play) and just doesn't interest me in the slightest.

• How many hours a week do you think you spend on digital gaming and social networking? Do you feel like you are part of an online community? Discuss that "community" aspect of gaming. Or maybe you're too busy with other commitments/interests in your life....and don't see the point of wasting so much time online or on the phone....Say more about that....

Okay, I do not spend any time digital gaming and in so far as social networking - I keep a Facebook page out of request to do so but do not spend more than a 10 minutes a week on it. I do not feel that I am a part of any online community. Actually, I despise talking on the phone or even thinking about wasting time online with the exception of research or reading something like literature. I figure that the average person has about 75 summers to live (if they are lucky) and I just cannot reason wasting one day of those summers (years) in the artificial world. I am thinking of creating an online resource for my work as a contributor to the Martial Arts and making video and books available to those who cannot train in person though- but this is a maybe and I have not decided fully yet.