ABSTRACT
Sharing has become a verb, meaning “to tell.” I share my personal information, tastes in food, gossip. Sharing is good; it tethers people together (Turkle 2011). Th e enormous upside of the Internet and smartphones is that people can share anytime, anywhere. We are connected to the many contacts we have on our phones, Facebook, Twitter. Turkle argues persuasively that these are weak ties in the sense that we no longer have an obligation to each other imposed on us by face-to-face interaction, and we can acquire and shed relationships too easily. Internet dating is an example of this: Th e person returns from a date and goes online immediately to fi nd a better dating partner. Phoning and texting are also examples; we can ignore people, creating a generalized anxiety that requires us to attend to these devices compulsively, hoping that we won’t be ignored.
