Question Four

1      Turkle completes an experiment with an 8 year old meeting Kismet and the 8 year old boy states, “I wish I could build a robot to save me from my brothers…I want a robot to be my friend…I want to tell my secrets.”(91). How do the technological advances within robot mechanics affect the progression of children’s desire for instant gratification and selective relationship characteristics?

            I think that because the little boy is being picked on by his brothers, he has made an image for humans as ‘bullies’. The brothers are probably much older than the little boy and they like to pick on him. The little boy obviously does not have someone to talk to about his problems because his brothers are not his friends. His parents probably do not see the harm as they might think it is just sibling rivalry. Little do they know that the way they are treating the boy is shaping how he views humans or friends. The little boy might be reluctant to make friends with fear that his ‘friends’ might treat him the same way his brothers do. Robots, on the other hand, do not have emotions or feelings. They are not programmed to be mean, or hurtful. They are programmed to be nice, friendly, and helpful. The little boy sees the robot in a positive way and humans in a negative way. The little boy does not want to be friends with humans as he knows they can be mean and hurtful. He wants to be friends with a robot because they will always be nice and be his friend. But that is not a world we live in. We live in a world where there is good and there is bad. If the little boy just had a robot friend, he would only know the good. He would not understand what it is like to be hurt by someone else. In my opinion, that is something that children need to experience at a young age. They are not always going to get their way. If the little boy grows up without any other friends than that robot friend, he is not going to have advanced social skills. He is going to grow up always getting his way and always having that ‘someone’ there for him. He is not going to be able to understand life on his own. If he gets a job later in life and does something that his boss does not like…when his boss yells at him or explains he was wrong, the boy (now man) is going to retaliate thinking that he is not wrong, because he has never experienced this before. Children need human interaction, human friends, and real (not technological) toys. They need to grow up knowing that they are not always going to get their way, they are not always going to be happy with everything. I am not condoning the brothers picking on the little boy in any way, I am just saying that stuff like that happens in the big bad world and he needs to know how to handle it and not run from it.