How many times a day do you check your email? When you wake up? Before bed? A dozen times in between? The technology that was supposed to make our lives simple has taken up too much time. The average young man spends more than seven hours a day using technological devices(设备), with an additional hour just text-messaging friends.

    The advantage of technological devices is connectedness: email lets us respond on the go, and we are in touch with more people during more hours of the day than at any other time in history. But is it possible that we're lonelier than ever, too? That's what MIT professor Sherry Turkle observes in her new book, Alone Together, which clearly describes our changing relationship with technology.

    For Turkle, the biggest worry is the effect the weak connections have on our development. Technology isn't offering us the lives we want to live. “We're texting people at a distance,” says Turkle, “We're using lifeless objects to convince ourselves that even when we're alone, we feel together. And then when we're with each other, we put ourselves in situations where we are alone—always on our mobile devices. It's what I call a perfect storm of confusion about what's important in our human connections.”

    Moreover, communicating online is not equal to face-to-face communication. Online, you can ignore others' feelings. In a text message, you can avoid eye contact. A number of studies have found that this generation of young people is less sympathetic(有同情心的)than ever. “That doesn't lead to disaster,” says Turkle, “but the disadvantages still cannot be ignored.”