Summary & Synthesis In those three articles that we have studied, Nicholas Carr, Sherry Turkle and Clive Thompson have a common focus: effects of sharing information. Nicholas Carr mainly focuses on the sharing of objective information, the information that is related to science and facts. In the mean time, Sherry Turkle writes about sharing subjective information, the personal and emotional messages that we deliver on social media. Clive Thompson talks about the sharing of both kinds of information. However, their views about sharing information are totally different. The similarities and conflicts between their arguments can actually help us to compare and crystallize those different points of view on sharing information. In his article …show more content…
In general, she suggests when we reveal information about ourselves online, we “hide as much as we show” (Turkle 388). Since we actively present this information to other people, it is natural to present ourselves in the way we “wish to be seen” (Turkle 388). Eventually, the information that we present becomes part of our personal identity. As a result, some parts of our original self identities are neglected, even forgotten. For a large portion of this article, Turkle uses the example of a high school junior Andrey to illustrate such concept. Andrey has an extreme enthusiasm about Facebook; she posts pictures to Facebook all the times and she is extremely proud of the amount of personal information that she releases online (Turkle 380). According to Andrey, in the world of Facebook, she can “can create who she want to be ” (Turkle 388). Furthermore, Andrey believes this personal information online is actually a vital part of her self identity. She says, “I like to feel that my life is up there... If Facebook were deleted, I’d be deleted... All my memories would probably go along with it” (Turkle 388). Her obsession with sharing personal information online supports Turkle’s idea that excessive revelation of our personal information can potentially make us to lose our self