I had countless nights seeing the clock going past 3:30 a.m.; dim lights emitted from my devices are invigorating yet soothing my nerves at the same time.
Upon reading the chapter "My Laptop" by Annalee Newitz, I instantly feel connected to the topic. Yet to describe it to the most accurate extent, it is better to say that my evocative object is not only limited to a single laptop, but all electronic devices I own.
Yes, all my devices — the omnipresent yet pathetic extensions of my existence.
Laptop is the object I feel the most connected to out of all the given chapter choices of the evocative objects, at least I can guarantee that to myself. Maybe I could even assume it to the entire Gen Z generation.
I was almost bred up by devices. I’m also lucky to say that I have responsible parents, and overflowing and chaotic internet memes and cultures didn’t get to slam an injuring crater on my brain.
But they mean something else when it ultimately comes down to socializing.
Growing up as a city boy, I didn’t get any chance to experience any kinds of "socializing" that I would perceive as "normal" in a common sense. Almost all my social activities have been moved online, whether it’s just asking a question or sending out hang-out requests to a classmate in middle and high school. I didn’t have any neighborhood friends that I can hang out with, nor any buddies or pals either; I didn’t have any classmates asking me to go get drinks with them after class; I didn’t have any moments as seen from books or TV shows that I thought I would have……All that’s left are encounters, whether with people online or online contents — the encounters as mediations of my hopes and dreams; the encounters that remind me of my reality ;the encounters that send out all the glow from my devices.
That inundating, clogging, torturing, soothing, colourful, plain, and infinite-to-nothing glow.
I can still remember the last time where the glow shines my tears.
"My laptop computer is irreplaceable, and not just for all the usual reasons. It’s practically a brain prosthesis. Sometimes I find myself unable to complete a thought without cracking it open and accessing a file of old notes, or hopping online and Googling a fact or two."
—— Annalee Newitz (page 88, "My Laptop")
Newitz’s words at the start of her chapter naturally presents a slice-of-life observation which bears resemblance to my socializing experiences. After having all my connections on my devices, my overthinking and anxious would sometimes presume that someone’s dead if they haven’t been active online; I often feel scared to imagine what would happen if I’m totally detached from internet while all the social presences are deeply tied to the online realms. However, her words still hit on points that connect back to another work by Sherry Turkle, the author of this chapter collection book. Her book Alone Together provides valuable insights on the interesting dynamic between technology and societal loneliness. In the Chapter 9 Growing Up Tethered1, Turkle discussed the effect of technology on loneliness through different interviews with high school students. The main idea behind the chapter is generally about explanations behind this influence through sociological knowledge. Although it would be immense to use the entire chapter to frame the entire idea for my evocative objects, it is a precious piece of material that you can’t ignore to understand the everlasting impact of social media on psychological development. As complex, high-dimensional real-life social interactions are constantly mediated into compressed, low-dimensional formats online, the study of social media and interpersonal connections should not be only limited as one of the fields in media studies, but rather to be regarded a pressing global issue.
Maybe I hope that this simple blog article could change something. Maybe it wouldn’t.
Or I hope that the glow could be less clogging perhaps.
Works Consulted
Newitz, Annalee. “MY LAPTOP.” Evocative Objects: Things We Think With, by Sherry Turkle, The MIT Press, 2007, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5hhg8p.14.
Turkle, Sherry. Alone Together : Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other, Basic Books, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ubc/detail.action?docID=684281.
Footnotes
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The Chapter 9 spans across pages 197-213. ↩
Hi Micah, what a provoking piece on your (dare I say, our) relationship with electronic devices and that insatiable “infinite-to-nothing glow” that you mentioned. I have felt the presence of my phone, or rather the lack of presence, increasingly stress inducing. The constant bombardment of information drowns me and yet, as Newitz was saying, my brain feels utterly blank without it. In the press of a button, sometimes just to check the time or check that my phone isn’t quite dead yet, I remember what I needed to or my thoughts suddenly come together in order. It is a strange and complex relationship that we have with this technology. Your piece made me beg the question – Have we become “part of the machine” at this point? Have we since left our humanity behind, or has technology always been involved in human life? There are, of course, many possible answers, but when we can understand the relationship we have with technology , we can think critically about what these relationships mean, and further, why they are important to us.
Hi Micah！
I found your reflection incredibly moving — the way you describe the “glow” of your devices as both soothing and suffocating captures the paradox of our digital age so vividly. I really liked how you drew connections between Newitz’s “My Laptop” and Turkle’s Alone Together — your reading brought out the emotional and psychological complexity behind being “tethered.” The image of your devices as “pathetic extensions” of yourself felt especially striking, almost as if technology has become both your mirror and your shadow.
What stood out to me most was your discussion of mediated social connection. The way you wrote about “encounters” online — as both hopeful and painful — reminded me of Turkle’s argument that technology allows connection while simultaneously protecting us from it. You captured that contradiction beautifully. It made me think about whether disconnection from the internet is even possible anymore without losing part of who we’ve become through it.
Your final line about the glow staying “less clogging” felt quietly powerful — like a wish for balance rather than rejection. It made me wonder if part of the modern challenge is not to turn away from mediation, but to learn how to dwell in it more consciously.