“[Turkle] presents a powerful case that a new communication revolution is degrading the quality
of human relationships.” — The New York Review of Books “Turkle’s witty well-written book
offers much to ponder. . . . Talk is cheap but conversation is priceless.” — Boston Globe
“This is a persuasive and intimate book.” — Washington Post Renowned media scholar Sherry
Turkle investigates how a flight from conversation undermines our relationships creativity
and productivity — and why reclaiming face-to-face conversation can help us regain lost ground.
We live in a technological universe in which we are always communicating. And yet we have
sacrificed conversation for mere connection. Preeminent author and researcher Sherry Turkle
has been studying digital culture for over thirty years. Long an enthusiast for its
possibilities here she investigates a troubling consequence: at work at home in politics
and in love we find ways around conversation tempted by the possibilities of a text or an
email in which we don’t have to look listen or reveal ourselves. We develop a taste for
what mere connection offers. The dinner table falls silent as children compete with phones for
their parents’ attention. Friends learn strategies to keep conversations going when only a few
people are looking up from their phones. At work we retreat to our screens although it is
conversation at the water cooler that increases not only productivity but commitment to work.
Online we only want to share opinions that our followers will agree with – a politics that
shies away from the real conflicts and solutions of the public square. The case for
conversation begins with the necessary conversations of solitude and self-reflection. They are
endangered: these days always connected we see loneliness as a problem that technology should
solve. Afraid of being alone we rely on other people to give us a sense of ourselves and our
capacity for empathy and relationship suffers. We see the costs of the flight from conversation
everywhere: conversation is the cornerstone for democracy and in business it is good for the
bottom line. In the private sphere it builds empathy friendship love learning and
productivity. But there is good news: we are resilient. Conversation cures. Based on five
years of research and interviews in homes schools and the workplace Turkle argues that we
have come to a better understanding of where our technology can and cannot take us and that the
time is right to reclaim conversation. The most human—and humanizing—thing that we do. The
virtues of person-to-person conversation are timeless and our most basic technology talk
responds to our modern challenges. We have everything we need to start we have each other.
Turkle's latest book The Empathy Diaries is available now.
