Dear Commons Community,

Sherry Turkle, professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the author of Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less From Each Other, has an op-ed piece in today’s New York Times observing our fascination with preserving “the moment”.  Coming after President Obama’s selfie with UK Prime Minister David Cameron and  Danish PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service, Turkle traces how our social/emotional connection to our mobile connections have evolved from not just one of sharing but also of trying to possess the moment.  She writes:

“Technology doesn’t just do things for us. It does thing to us, changing not just what we do but who we are. The selfie makes us accustomed to putting ourselves and those around us “on pause” in order to document our lives. It is an extension of how we have learned to put our conversations “on pause” when we send or receive a text, an image, an email, a call. When you get accustomed to a life of stops and starts, you get less accustomed to reflecting on where you are and what you are thinking.”

On President Obama’s selfie:

“We have every reason to believe that President Obama revered Nelson Mandela and thought deeply about his relationship with what Mandela stood for. But when he took a selfie at Mandela’s memorial service last Tuesday, he showed us how he, too, lives in our culture of documentation. It is easy to understand how he, like most of us, did not allow himself an uninterrupted time of reverie.”

Tony