Reclaiming Conversation

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Preeminent author and researcher Sherry Turkle has studied digital culture for over thirty years. While she has long been an enthusiast for its possibilities, she now investigates a troubling consequence: our tendency to avoid conversation in various aspects of life—work, home, politics, and love—opting instead for texts and emails that allow us to disengage. This shift has led to silent dinner tables where children compete with phones for parental attention and friends struggle to maintain conversations when few are looking up from their screens. At work, we retreat to our devices, despite the fact that informal conversations enhance productivity and commitment. Online, we often share only agreeable opinions, avoiding the real conflicts of public discourse. The need for conversation begins with self-reflection, which is endangered in an always-connected world where loneliness is seen as a problem technology should solve. This reliance on others for self-worth diminishes our empathy and relationships. The consequences of avoiding conversation are evident: it undermines democracy and business success, while fostering empathy, friendship, love, and learning in our personal lives. However, there is hope; Turkle's five years of research reveal that we can reclaim conversation, the most humanizing act we engage in, to address modern challenges. We possess everything we need to start—each other.