Stop Googling By Sherry Turkle Summary

In response to recent studies that connect phone usage with the increase lack of face-to-face conversation, Sherry Turkle explains the risks of constantly being on a phone and solutions to the problems it presents in the New York Times article, Stop Googling. Let’s Talk. Turkle shares that the increase lack of empathy and conversational intimacy in humans has recently been attributed to the increasing use of cell phones. Turkle asks phone users to consider that using the phone even when alone can be damaging, for their time to “[listen] to [themselves]” are occupied by their devices. As a solution Turkle suggests that phone owners should limit their and their children’s cell phone use, by creating “device-free” spaces such as the car, the dinner table, etc., as well as taking advantage of built-in features such as “do not disturb”. Ultimately, the author is attempting to make people aware

Turkle explains that in resent years school employees have seen an increase of kids “[sitting] … and looking at their phones”. This increased lack of contact between students result in older children “excluding other kids” on the playground and not being able to “read the signals of other students”, tendencies, both of which are generally attributed to younger students.
Secondly, Turkle addresses the negative aspects of phone use when people are by themselves denouncing the optimistic idea that it’s “our new form of being together”. Turkle suggests that in solitude we learn how to “concentrate and imagine, to listen to ourselves”, important aspects of a person’s self they need to be fully present in a conversation. She pushes the idea that a “start toward reclaiming conversation is to reclaim solitude” and that the human race needs to think of “unitasking as the next big