Schuyler Davis

Basic Comp
Professor. Brook
11/20/14
Under no circumstances should we find it appropriate to utilize technology to
meet our emotional and spiritual needs. Although people may argue out with the old ,in
with the new they often overlook the consequences behind technology. Technology is
great to an extent. When people become dependable and rely on technology to meet their
needs emotions and everything associated with them becomes artificial. In Alone
Together an essay by Sherry Turkle she digs deep into the humans relationship with
technology. In another essay Who Holds The Clicker by Lauren Slater, Slater mentions
how technology is being used to fix personal problems like OCD. Technology has made a
lot of things accessible for the last decade, but one of the things technology has not made
accessible is the authentic feeling of being content. Technology does not offer any
alleviation from pain that runs deep inside the average human being. Technology only
offers an illusional relief from conflicts we face on a daily basis. What people dont
realize is that our emotional problems cannot be fixed by technology because technology
is not of this world. Technology creates a matrix and people have fallen victim to it,
believing that it will help them. Technology is modern medicine to some people.
Technology is a blue pill, similar to the blue pill in the movie the Matrix. If the blue pill
is taken the protagonist of the movie would have still been trapped in the illusional world.
If people want their emotional needs and spiritual needs met need to take a red pill or
have human contact to relieve the pain.
Technology is not the right world to use. Advanced technology is more
appropriate. If people choose to take the blue pill and not the red pill than they become
artificial humans. Consider Mario for example. Mario is the main focus in Slaters essay.
Mario suffers from OCD and decided to take the blue pill. The idea made sense to
Mario. His experience of mental illness was one of a terrible loop de loop. So he said yes
to surgery. He said yes in part because he knew that if he didnt like the neural implants,
he could simply have them switched off(Slater 235). Mario suffered from a mental
illness. Having this mental illness Mario decided to take the easy way out and take the
blue pill. The blue pill would allow him to switch his problem on and off. The blue pill
comes in many flavors. The flavor of this blue pill is a clicker, which would control his
OCD. The blue pill may have helped him to a degree. The blue pill will have only helped
him to a degree because what if the clicker would have broke? Mario will then become
dependable on technology. Technology is not the only person who is seduced by
technology and then becoming dependable on it. In Turkles essay she gives an example
on an older lady named Mariam who become dependent on technology. Mariams son
has recently broken off his relationship with her. He has a job and family on the West
Coast and when he visits he and his mother quarrel-he feels she wants more from him
than he can give. Now Mariam sits quickly stroking Paro, a sociable robot in the shape of
a baby harp seal(Slater 270). Mariam was desperate for her emotional needs to be met.
If her son was not going to be there to give her what she needs she ran to technology
which greeted her with open arms. One might say what is wrong with this picture.

Mariam has a pet which is offering her comfort. There is a lot wrong with his picture.
Mariam is still hurt on the inside. What can a baby harp seal do for an older lady?
Mariam deciding to take the blue pill instead of the red is now depending on technology
to meet her needs. The blue pill not only making people dependable on technology but its
also making people artificial human beings.
In modern society we are living among artificial human beings and robots. It is
rare to find an actual person. In her essay Turkle mentions how technology limits
intimacy between people. Technology also allows people to hide behind walls and allow
them to create an illusional world. Turkle says We build a following on Facebook
Myspace and wonder to what degree our followers are friends. We recreate ourselves as
online personae and give ourselves new bodies, homes ,jobs, and romances. But for most
people it begins when one creates a profile on a social networking site or builds a persona
or avatar for a game or virtual world(Turkle 273). If one is able to lie on social media
about themselves that automatically makes them an artificial human. Recreating the
things in our life in order to impress others is the wrong way to go. People who are taking
the blue pill are being turned into liars. Similarly in Slaters essay Mario is an artificial
human being. Mario is artificial instead of being authentic because the clicker inside of
his head was controlling him. Mario had no control of what he was doing. Tap Tap.
Now Mario felt a surge inside of him. Later outside, Mario peered at the world turned
on,turned up and indeed it did look different, the grass a cheerful line green, the yellow
throated daffodils.(Slater 240). Mario saw the world differently because he was a new
person. Mario was literally a new person because of the implant allowed him to see
things differently. Mario became an artificial human the moment he got the surgery
completed because again the clicker controlled his thoughts. If one is not in control of his
own thoughts than he is not there.
Speaking of not there, feelings and emotions are not really there when it comes to
taking the blue pill. The blue pill eliminates all types of emotions one can think of. A side
effect of taking the blue pill is having technology either deleting that feeling or having an
influence on a particular feeling. For example Slater mentions how easily his emotions
were controlled. Mario remembers the exact moment they went on. I felt a strange
sadness go all through me. Mario recalls Greenberg fingers tapping on the keyboard
,adjusting the current, the pulse, duration, and the frequency. After a few taps the sadness
went away.(Slater 239). This is interesting because the blue pill can easily control
emotions. In a quick second Mario was turned into a sad individual when he wasnt really
sad. This is another down side of the blue pill. The blue pill has the potential to destroy
lifes why use it? The blue pill doesnt stop there. In Turkles essay Turkle says that
sociable robots and online life both suggest the possibility of relationships the way we
want them. Just as we can program a made to measure robot, we can reinvent ourselves
as comely avatars, We can write the Facebook profile that pleases us. We can edit our
messages until they project the self we want to be.(Turkle 275). Turkle talks about how
we can make our avatars or who we are comely. Comely is attraction and when we are
attracted to something it brings us a really good feeling. This feeling however is
controlled by technology because at any moment of time somebody can manipulate our
feelings online.
To conclude no one in their right mind should ever take the blue pill in order to
alleviate pain or what it is thats keeping them down.