Week 10 – Reading Reflection

When I started reading the text “Hands”, I felt like the author was telling the obvious things. However, recalling how my little sister was born during the pandemic time with an iPad and iPhone at home, his words have value. My sister knows everything about the screens and how to manipulate them, but she might not know the basic things such as how to tie the shoes, hold the pen properly, etc. Because of this, I understand that pictures under glass are affecting the skills and reducing the capabilities of the hands, thus, reducing the real-life experience. What I mean by experience is that we are replacing the papers with screens, or table games such as chess and ping-pong with screen ‘dynamics’, but they don’t create the same tactile feeling… it is just a screen. 

Furthermore, the picture in the glass puts a huge emphasis on the vision, assuming that it might compensate for the tactile feelings. However, I think that this might be not the best inclusive solution for people with visual impairments. Hands give enough intuitive information for us to understand the material we are touching, how thick it is, how to manipulate it, etc, which cannot be replaced by the glass screen unless we look at it. As the author said, this is a good temporary solution, but not in the long term. So, he gave good ideas about the issues we have and now it is time to start thinking about the solutions for this issue. 

Overall, I think that our desire to touch, feel, and move cannot be replaced with visual aesthetics. 

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