Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age, by Sherry Turkle

4/27/2016

Sherry Turkle’s new book, Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age, shines a bright and disturbing light on how our dependence upon our various personal technologies is shaping, limiting, and eviscerating the depth and nuance of our personal interactions. Technology allows us to present and share only those aspects of ourselves we choose to present. Direct conversation with others, on the other hand, challenges us to be present to others and to ourselves, with all our imperfections and awkward moments. Conversation with another helps us learn to listen to the other person and teaches and reinforces our own sense of empathy. Conversation with ourselves enhances our ability to pay attention to and recognize what we are feeling and thinking.
Technology surely has many benefits, but to funnel our relationships exclusively through technology truncates the reality and untidiness of what it is to be a person trying to understand another person or just ourselves. “Conversation” via technology enables us to stay fragmented (showing only the “good parts” of ourselves) and separated from ourselves and from the other person.
Highly recommended.

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.

Leave a Reply.

School Committee Policies
Legal Notices
Accessibility

The Wellesley Public School System does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability in admission to, access to, employment in, or treatment in its programs and activities. The Wellesley Public School System is committed to maintaining a school environment free of harassment based on race, color, religion, national origin, age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability. All district academic and nonacademic programs and events are offered regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability. Harassment by administrators, certified and support personnel, students, vendors and other individuals at school or at school-sponsored events is unlawful and is strictly prohibited. The Wellesley Public School System requires all employees and students to conduct themselves in an appropriate manner with respect to their fellow employees, students and all members of the school community. The Director of Human Resources, 40 Kingsbury Street, Wellesley, MA 02481, 781-446-6200, has been designated as the employee responsible for coordinating the Wellesley Public School district’s efforts to implement this nondiscriminatory policy.

Book Reviews