Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age

Author Sherry Turkle describes the difficulties in modern communication. Without being face to face, it is harder to be present and to cultivate empathy. People may use their phones because they are bored. They even use their phones when talking to other people: “Phubbing” is the word for making eye contact while texting. The situation is not limited to adults, as even children increasingly prefer to text. Turkle is disturbed by the lack of real conversation because conversations create intimacy. She compares the new reality to “a ‘silent spring’—a term Rachel Carson [a marine biologist and conservationist] coined when we were ready to see that with technological change had come an assault on our environment” (4).

“They Make Acquaintances, but Their Connections Seem Superficial”

In December 2013, the dean of Holbrooke School, Ava Reade, contacted Turkle, asking her to research the perceived superficiality of friendships in the middle school. Turkle took a diary to a faculty retreat and calls it the “empathy diaries.” Reade said that 12-year-old students seem to lack the empathy appropriate for their age and were excluding each other the way eight-year-olds do.