Stop Googling: Let's Talk By Sherry Turkle

992 Words4 Pages

Stop Googling. Let’s Talk. Mobile devices and other social contributors are a big part of our modern world today. We can communicate with whoever, whenever – but is there a downside? Are we forgetting how to interact with the people right in front of us? That is the case in ‘Stop Googling. Let’s Talk’ by Sherry Turkle. The essay is an extract from her latest book and published on September 25, 2015 by The New York Times. Sherry Turkle is a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also known as M.I.T. She is an author of a numerous amount of books – all which touches the subjective side of people’s relationship with technology. In 1976, she received a Ph.D. in Sociology and Personality Psychology from Harvard University. A couple …show more content…

By summarizing and repeating the main point at the end of each paragraph, she is making her statement clear: “Studies of conversation both in the laboratory and in natural settings show that when two people are talking, the mere presence of a phone on a table between them or in the periphery of their vision changes both what they talk about and the degree of connection they feel. People keep the conversation on topics where they won’t mind being interrupted. They don’t feel as invested in each other. Even a silent phone disconnects us.” Followed by her informative introduction, is an explanation of the unwritten rules and norms of using your phone in public. Keywords as ‘technology’, ‘social interactions’, ‘empathy’, ‘mobile devices’ and ‘distractions’, do not only indicate the essay’s topic, but also point out how our phone is keeping us from empathic conversations and personal development. It is becoming harder for us to identify other people’s …show more content…

The article is about understanding how social contributors are shaping the next generation – in particular, how selfies are affecting preteens and adolescents physical and physiological way of growing up, and their awareness upon so. However, the article suggest a positive side of ‘the selfie trend’, where the images can inform emotional or behavioral problems. This is an opposite perspective than Turkel’s, because the article suggest how devices can help with behavioral problems, whereas Turkel argues that devices are the reason for these