Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other: A Critical Insight into Modern Technology.
To begin, it is a basic question: Is the technology formed strictly for human convenience?. Then why does it surrogate humanity, and how do these algorithms enslave the whole of humanity and block them from entering the real world, veiling the reality behind?. Are you surprised by hearing these probing questions? Have you ever thought about the opposite side of your glowing screen while you're scrolling on it?. Are these questions distracting you for a second? Then you had better know the answers on your own while on your journey for a purposeful living.
Is it possible to be designed in another way, to be convenient for human beings, as the prominent scholars like Ivan Illich and Elli Paris prescribe it?. What does this topic matter?. These questions are still disgusting in our minds. In a world where we mostly live in echo chambers, we affect our own worlds in front of the screen. We expect more from technology and less from each other. And in contrast, we expect less from our loved ones, such as Keith and kin. In the modern era of technology, almost everything invented by human beings was for the colonial project and so for imperialism, like all the scientific inventions that had reciprocal relationships with imperial projects, as mentioned by prominent anthropologist Yuval Noah Harari.
Like the Manhattan Project introduced by Teller and Oppenheimer 40 years after Isaac Newton found the theory of E=mc², and not surprisingly, the modern Europeans were busy dealing with all these matters rather than checking a trace of ethics in their own activities. Just like the technology, the practical level of scientific inventions was introduced for human convenience and to provide humanity with proper time management. And paradoxically, it enslaved the entirety of humanity by making them addicted to social media and dependent on robots that have no real emotions and feelings as humans do. And the human being expects more things from robots, even for childcare and the elderly. It is so pathetic and lamentable to have these things from humanity. What does all this mean?. Is this strictly for human convenience?. And exactly it is not. However, there are so many scholars all over the world who argue that all these depend on the usage of consumers, like we use knives either for killing or cutting fruits.
As Sherry Turkle, the eminent writer and thinker, titles her book Alone Together, we are stuck among the people, and not surprisingly, we are alone while looking into the glowing screen. When we trace the genealogy of technology and its teleology, we should examine the philosophical questions behind these inventions of humanity over the years. It upends our daily routine as well as the spiritual reflections of humans on ultimate power, with increasing anxiety by giving them incessant notifications and emails, which leads the life model into a life mix. Instead of fostering our future, we are still living in the present by making with relentless scrolling on the screen without any benefits or pros. As it is, it is blunt that we are being caged by the technology while we are not aware of it.
And as a matter of fact, once the technology promised us time-saving, it would grease the wheels of your education and life by balancing time and saving it further. But unfortunately, what happened next, not surprisingly, has destroyed our time with these so-called algorithms. That is what Hussain Nasr said once: paradoxically, all time-saving machines of the modern world destroyed our time, and so did the author of Alone Together.
And when we take the content of this book into consideration (alone together), that book explores robotics and its uses and life in social media. She mentions in the first part of her book a lot about robots and their functions, even love and sex with robots. Some of them have emotions.
She discusses a wide range of social and companion robots to illustrate how humans increasingly seek emotional connection from machines. She describes Kismet, an MIT social robot designed to mimic facial expressions and respond to human tone, and Cog, another humanoid robot that imitates human gestures, both of which reveal how easily people project emotions onto machines. Turkle also examines Paro, the therapeutic seal robot widely used in elder-care settings, which comforts users through soft movements and sounds, raising ethical questions about replacing human caregiving with artificial companionship.
Similarly, AIBO, Sony’s robotic dog, and My Real Baby, an emotionally responsive doll, show how children and adults alike form deep attachments to machines that feign affection. She revisits the early conversational program Eliza, which merely reformulates user input, yet convinces many that it “understands,” highlighting the human tendency to over-ascribe intelligence to simple programs. Turkle further discusses robots such as QRIO, a child-like humanoid that walks and dances; Nexi, a highly expressive social robot; Repliee Q2, a hyper-realistic android; and Hasbro’s emotional companion toys, all of which demonstrate how robots encourage users to share feelings and treat them as partners. Through these examples, Turkle argues that these machines simulate care without possessing real emotions, yet people increasingly seek comfort from them—revealing a growing pattern of expecting more from technology and less from each other.
Conclusion
In essence, our growing dependence on technology reveals a contradictory truth about modern life. The many tools created for human convenience later distanced us from the whole of humanity by making us addicted to things we really don't want. The problem is not merely technological advancement itself, but the uncritical way in which we surrender our attention, emotions, and even relationships to machines that can simulate connection but can never truly reciprocate it. While technology promised liberation—time-saving, productivity, comfort—it has often delivered entrapment, distraction, and emotional dislocation.