Juliet Baptista, G11, PSY 409b, Spring 1999

 

My Oral Presentation #2:

NOTE ON METHOD

 

 

Table of Contents

 

 

 

2) My second presentation was on the Note on Method: The Inner History of Technology from our class textbook by Sherry Turkle, "Life on the Screen"., which was published by SIMON & SCHUSTER in 1995.

It was a short summary on Turkleâs work history, and also included a little about her background as well. Aside from Life on the Screen, Turkle wrote another book in 1984, "The Second Self". In both books she explored how the computer has shaped our ways of thinking and feeling. However, "Life on the Screen" emphasized this view in regards to human identity.

 

3) The following questions were asked by fellow classmates, and my answers follow.

 

  1. What specific things does she emphasize in this book? öTony Pun

    2. In my opinion, she basically emphasizes how computers affect our ways of thinking about ourselves and other people. She stresses how we depend so much on the computer to do things and as a source of communication, rather social interaction.

     

  2. With the experiences that Sherry Turkle has, how reputable is her work within her field? öMarilyn Ortal

    3. I feel Turkleâs work is very reputable within her field. As a social scientist, she has done graduate work in various fields of psychology and like I mentioned, she has been involved in psychotherapy for numerous years.

     

  3. What are the two experiments that she has done? öWing Xin Man

    4. Iâm not sure what two particular experiments you want to know about, but I will mention her work with children and her research in Boston. In regards to the first, she took a leave of absence from MIT in 1987-89 to study how English and American children felt about what computers meant to them. The book didnât give much detail about this, but she did mention that she observed, as well as talked to the children to get their opinions. In Boston during 1992, her focus was on the Internet and how people explored the virtual world. She found that many people felt that multiple personalities and romance felt "real".

     

  4. Could you explain the "Athena project" in terms of what Turkle hopes to earn or gain my this project? öShehla Korff

    5. The book didnât go into detail about this project, but it is mentioned that she focused on 4 specific educational settings. So I guess she wanted to see how the use of state-of-the-art computers affect different people in different settings.

     

  5. Why does she give the readers a section on her background and methods? öJayson Nakasone

    6. I feel that Turkle does this to show how reputable her work is in relation to everything she has written in her book. Like in any type of research, information is valid in the eyes of readers if they know that she has some degree of authority.

     

  6. After reading this book, how has your view on computers changed? What is your reaction to this book? öCindy Hisley

    7. This book has made me realize how true it is, that we depend on computers in our society. It made me think about how much I depend on it. I do practically everything on my computer. Iâve been told that I pretty much "live behind the computer", which I can say is true. I thought the book was very interesting. However, there are certain parts of the book that get too technical for me to understand, but overall it has enlightened me.

     

  7. It seems to me this information is relevant to the rest of the book. Donât you think we should know this stuff first? Do you feel you learned more about computers through Turkleâs book or through info you gathered throughout the semester? öCandra Newsham

    8. Yes, I feel that this part of the book should come first. Personally, it doesnât make much of a difference that this information is in the back. However, I do feel that by learning this information from the very start wouldâve been a better in order for readers to clearly see first hand what her intentions are, like a preview kind of thing.

     

  8. Does it say what aspects of study she prefers most (sociology, psychology, computer technology)? öJason Thompson

    9. The book doesnât say which field of study she prefers the most. However, just by the little information that is given, I think that theyâre all very important fields to her because in the book she emphasizes how these different fields affect one another in some way or another among different people.

     

  9. Do you think that being a psychoanalyst has caused Turkle to view the computer culture to shift from book to book? If so, what do you think the causes are? -Monica Chen

Personally, I would say so. She observes how the constant change of technology affects peopleâs lives. Like I mentioned in my presentation, it was her book, "The Second Self" that inspired her to do further research which followed in this textbook.

 

4) At the time of my presentation, not many questions were asked, but everyone did come up with good questions for the written part of the presentation.

 

9) As always, my advice to future generations is to always get assignments started early and posted on time! It can get easy to fall behind and end up being stressed in the end if you wait till the last minute to whip reports together.

 

 

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