In “Mobilizing a Movement of the Mind” by Aja Monet, she talks about how technology has impacted our way of connecting as humans across the world and generation. How communicating through a telegraph became nowadays video messaging and how through this evolution brought a new way of connecting with others locally or globally and the joys it may bring. However, the advancement of technology could do the opposite, by disconnecting. For example, in Black Mirror Season 4 Episode 1: U.S.S. Callister, it shows how a person can completely disconnect with the world with the advancement of technology. Robert Daly, the coding genius that coded Callister Inc.’s platform of virtual reality who receives lack of respect and acknowledgment from his colleagues, found comfort within his own personal virtual reality based on his favorite show, Space Fleet. He released himself within that virtual reality, taking his anger and frustrations out in his made-up world instead of bettering himself in the real world. He continued to be a pushover in real life and bottling up all of his problems until he goes home and becomes a ruthless person with a superiority/god complex. This shows how technology can assist with disconnecting with oneself, others, and the real world, as Robert Daly did with his detached skewed personality and his views on life or reality. Although this is a very extreme and exaggerated scenario of what could happen as technology advances, this is not far from what many are trying to do nowadays, as people try to find comfort within a technological platform from reality. For example, in “How Twitter Became Home to the Teen Status Update: ‘Local Twitter’ is a booming network of basic, young suburbanites across the country.” by Taylor Lorenz, it shows how there is a rift within the Twitter community. There is a group of people labeled as “Local Twitter” who are being judged by the rest of Twitter for multiple reasons and one of these reasons is bringing reality into the online world. Teens on Twitter state that most of them are there to get away from reality and that is why they don’t use Facebook anymore, to avoid their life in the real world. However, because of “Local Twitters” who “pollute their Twittersphere,” they cannot find the absolute comfort of detaching themselves from the real world within the online one. As a result, they ridicule and judge those who are considered “Local Twitter.” Although the evolution of technology has maximized our ways of connecting, while also giving an opportunity to minimizing it too, it gives a platform to more miscommunications which could lead to wanting to disconnect. For example, technology expands our range of connections globally which could create more communication problems, like cross-boundary discourse as told by “When the First Voice You Hear is Not Your Own” by Jacqueline Jones Royster. Royster shares her experiences of cross-boundary discourse and addresses her observations with the problems of the present-day way of communicating and suggest how these problems or situations should be dealt with. She observes that during conversations with the subject being herself or a subject she is very close with, people often talk about it with their interpretations and not with her about her experiences or her knowledge of the subject of the matter, being oblivious to her potentially being a primary source to the discussion. As a result, she came to the conclusion that people should listen and learn from each other when in a course of a discussion, instead of just saying things through the lenses of your interpretations and stigma of the subject at matter. To communicate with an open mind and accepting the existence of the views of others. However, currently, people push their views and criticize those who do not align themselves up with their views, like in “How Twitter Became Home to the Teen Status Update: ‘Local Twitter’ is a booming network of basic, young suburbanites across the country.” by Taylor Lorenz, or are too focused on themselves that they neglect a person who then develops a skewed view of reality, like in Black Mirror Season 4 Episode 1: U.S.S. Callister. As a result, those people try to find satisfaction of life elsewhere due to lack of communication. This goes to show how technology gives opportunities to connect or disconnect more within one’s life and how communication is key to the fine line between them.
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