Hailey McRea – One idea that I found intersecting between authors, is the idea that technology and online usage is dividing us. By this, I mean that cell phones and other forms of technological communication, were once used to connect people who could not have face-to-face interactions regularly. This is certainly a positive thing because now, we are able to catch up and stay connected with people even if we are not in the same vicinity as them. However, this has developed into dividing us and the ones we spend most of our face-to-face interactions with. We are spending so much time on our phones or online connecting with people we do not normally see, that we are disconnecting ourselves from the people we care about that are right in front of us. Restak and Turkle both describe this issue. Restak states, “We can shift back and forth from a phone conversation with someone in Hong Kong and someone directly in front of our eyes, Yet thanks to our sense of distraction we’re not fully focused on either of them” (Restak 381). This accurately shows how we are connected with people far away all the time, but at the same time we are disconnecting with people we have the convenience of being right next to them. Turkle also says something similar of not really being connected with the people we are physically so close to. He describes this as “being together without being together” (Turkle). This speaks to great length of how impactful technology is to our face-to-face interactions with others. Yes we have the ability of connecting people who are a great physical distance from us, but at the cost of completely disconnecting from the people right in front of our faces. We are with those people without actually being with those people which I think is a huge problem in today’s society.