Communication as a Means of Validating Emotion

Our discussion in class on Tuesday offered several connections to some of the arguments that Turkle has made in recent readings.  One of the major similarities I noticed was the amount of communication we have through texting and how adolescents use this ease of access to communication as a way to validate emotions to an extent.  Teens by nature are insecure and constantly looking for an outlet for emotion.  Texting gives them an easy way to get ahold of their friends to share the latest installment of excitement or disappointment that has occurred that day.  Turkle calls it a sort of almost narcissism: “…not to indicate people who love themselves, but a personality so fragile that it needs constant support” (Pg. 177).  She lays out a sort of almost interdependence where teens need each other as both an outlet and source of validation for their feelings.  She even says that if one person's advice/condolence is not sufficient, with the ease of texting a teen can just continue through their contact list in order to find a more satisfactory answer.