Reclaiming conversation : the power of talk in a digital age

Originally published: 2015.

An engaging look at how we have taken flight from conversation due to social media, texting and email, and how it's damaging our relationships, creativity and productivity. 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 are becoming addicted to connection over conversation, and this fact is stopping us from engaging in real debate, sharing our real opinions and reacting to our family, friends, partners and colleagues in a way that either encourages necessary conflict, or diffuses it. We are shying away from the real politics of the public square and heading for a subdued, online version of ourselves. Based on five years of research and interviews in homes, schools and the workplace, Turkle argues in RECLAIMING CONVERSATION 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 humanising - thing that we do.