In a world that continues to advance technologically machines titled “sociable robots” acquire life-like characteristics once exclusive to humans. They are able to express artificial emotions that seem real to the user. In “Alone Together” by Sherry Turkle we see how sociable robots interact with children. They begin to feel emotions that were once exclusive to human interaction. In the narrative “An Army of One: Me” written by Jean Twenge we see how prominent the generation gap is. Those under the age of thirty-five tend to focus more on themselves and making sure they feel worthy. This generation is appropriately called “Generation Me,” highlighting the fact that boosts of “self-esteem” leads to a rise in individualistic focus. Parents expose …show more content…
Self-esteem levels grew drastically within the new generation which puzzled researchers. When discussing how members of Generation Me were raised, Twenge claims that “GenMe’s self-esteem has been actively cultivated” (Twenge 495). To argue that members of Generation Me were “cultivated” to have self-esteem suggests that certain factors easily influence children. To “cultivate” something implies one is growing a uniform crop. In this case the “crop” is the members of Generation Me and parents grow them to have a uniform set of behaviors. Although shaping the uniform behavior of self-esteem was successful, this “cultivation” created an entirely new perspective of the self. This cultivation changed what was valued in society. The Baby Boomer generation valued “abstraction and spirituality” (Twenge 489), while Generation Me valued a “focus on the needs of the individual” (Twenge 490). “Abstract thought” is when one focuses on the larger picture rather than a specific event and people typically carry out “spirituality” within a group. However, focusing on the “individual” only requires a singular self. Turkle offers a mechanism of how this cultivation was carried out. Turkle introduces the idea of sociable robots through a girl named Bianca. Bianca claims that she and her sociable robot (a Furby) have a “mutual connection: I love my Furby because It loves me” (Turkle 471). Toy …show more content…
Sociable robots make demands that children feel obliged to fulfill. While discussing how a Tamagotchi, another sociable robot, interacts with children she states that “with this aggressive demand for care, the question of biological aliveness … falls away” (Turkle 464). Turkle’s use of “aggressive” showcases how forceful the actions of a sociable robot can be. These demands for care strip away questions of “biological aliveness” because to the child it seems like the Tamagotchi needs something to survive, implying a Tamagotchi is biologically alive enough to die. The notions of “biological aliveness” have changed allowing sociable robots to make aggressive demands that children will observe and learn from. Twenge offers a consequence to these aggressive demands through her examination of undesired behaviors. Twenge cites an article that appropriately titles Generation Me as “The Entitlement Generation” (Twenge 505), and later states that older members of Generation Me tend to “lash out aggressively when they are insulted or rejected” (Twenge 505). The children of Generation Me always complied with the aggressive demands of their sociable robots, making the concepts of being “insulted or rejected” foreign to them. The strong sense of self focus members of Generation Me grew up with carried on to adulthood. Sociable robots taught them