Upon viewing presentations by two prominent women in the field of new media, significant differences can be seen between the stances taken by them. Both professors of media and technology, Sherry Turkle and danah boyd are extremely knowledgeable and profound speakers. In Sherry Turkle’s TED talk, entitled “Connected, but alone?”, she delves into the consequences that media has on the general person’s everyday life. danah boyd, in her presentation at the 2013 NAIS annual conference, focuses more on the digital age gap that divides society, where children today cannot imagine a world without technology and parents do not understand the social boundaries of the internet-driven world.

It is obvious from the get-go that Turkle takes a more professional stance on the topic, while boyd instantly comes across as more laid back. A viewer will judge the editing and quality of each video and the physical appearance of each woman without even realizing it. Immediately, I noticed that Sherry Turkle was dressed very professionally and spoke in a slow and thorough manner, allowing the audience to understand that she is highly educated and prepared. Her video was obviously professionally recorded and edited, as it included multiple angle shots as well as brief interruptions by quotes and photos from her powerpoint presentation. On the other hand, the presentation given by danah boyd was comprised of a video stream from one camera and no special effects. Although boyd turned out to be an extremely intelligent and insightful, her physical presentation was not up to the standard that Turkle set with her performance.She dove right into the point and spoke extremely rapidly, which threw me off from the topic quite a bit. Although the women had great views on new media and how it affects our society, most people forget to note how slight differences in presentation can affect the overall message. Initial impression is everything in this world filled with new new media, and it clearly influenced me while watching these two videos.

Sherry Turkle’s message was that we, as a society, are alone together. By this, she means that we want a certain degree of interaction without taking on the responsibility of being fully present with that person. We constantly fall back on our digital devices in times of doubt or uncomfort. Instead of dealing with these problems head on, we back away into some remote corner of the world wide web. She notes that parents even fall into the trap during meals, when they are constantly checking their emails instead of conversing with their children. We expect comfort from technology instead of each other and that is a major issue. I can definitely relate to her message. Whenever I feel lonely or sad I begin to scroll down my Facebook news feed. I always regret the decision, as it makes me feel even worse about myself. When I see that online friends are getting straight A’s through college, just found the perfect boyfriend, or are spending quality time with their family, I start to feel bad about all of the things that I am currently not doing correctly. I crave the periodic security that Facebook allows me to have, but always feel even worse when that security vanishes.

danah boyd emphasizes the fact that new media is an issue mainly for the youth. She points out that the youth are being criticized by potential employers for posting inappropriate things online. boyd explains that although this new development in job hunting is great for employers, it restricts the privacy of today’s youth. She also explains how it is nearly impossible to pick and choose who you are completely available to and who you are not. Even if you are not friends with a person, they can still view your current profile picture, along with your name, school, and any other recent posts that have been made on your timeline. The lack of privacy online allows the older generation to believe that it is acceptable to snoop on their children’s profiles. The older generation simply does not understand the social etiquette that is required when surfing the web and social media. The divide between the digital generation and the old media generation is large and obvious. You can observe the divide at any point in time, as it is present within almost every snooping parent and employer.

Overall, I agree with the points that both danah boyd and Sherry Turkle argued, and when combined we can see a fairly cohesive and concise description of the problems that new media is causing our society.