Stop Googling Let's Talk Summary

M.I.T professor, Sherry Turkle published an article “Stop Googling. Let’s Talk” to the New York Times September 26th, 2015. In her article, she focuses on how technology has impacted our interactions with one another. The article also states how our emotions such as empathy are starting to deplenish. In part of the article she goes on to talk about how we can substitute technology with solitude. Sherry Turkle’s article gives the impression that we need to use our advanced technology as a tool rather than silence our natural emotions for those of the virtual world.

In this chapter Sherry Turkle discusses how new technologies have shaped the manner in which we interact with other individuals. Relationships have changed. In this new technological era, where one can remain online all time through various devices, Turkle wonders if being “on” effects the way we perceive others. Since our time is spent looking at screens, we are absent from what is happening in the real world. Instead of being aware of our surroundings, many are consumed by the many different possibilities that the Net provides. Some like to spend their time creating better versions of themselves on sites such as Second Life. Others are consumed in their work and feel that there is not enough time in the day to respond to overwhelming amounts of emails and texts. Turkle writes, “My concern [is] that the connected life encourages us to treat those we meet online in something of the same way we treat objects-with dispatch” (168). There are only so many hours in a day, and responding to many messages

This chapter of Reclaiming Conversation by Sherry Turkle essentially focused on the effect technology can have on the bond of a family. The writer depicts different families to prove how social media has creates a false sense of closeness in family relations, when in reality it drives us further apart. As explained in the section named “Left to their own devices”, a teenager named Alli finds herself in a situation most families are currently in. Alli is not able to rely on her family for emotional support and instead seeks comfort from thousands of strangers online. This is a common situation in which teenagers feel more comfortable going out of their way on social media to obtain advice from strangers, instead of having a conversation with

She is constantly giving examples of people feel the need to constantly distract themselves to use social connections with others. “For young people in all of these circumstances, computer, and mobile devices when families are absent.” –Sherry Turkle. “I can just act how I want to act, and it is much freer way.” Turkle uses quotes like this to state her tone as electronic communications and phones are taking over us and controlling our lives.

In the article “Stop Googling. Let’s Talk.” by Sherry Turkle, a lack of empathy and face to face interaction skills in students today is argued to be caused by the large presence of phones in the way we interact. The author discusses the difference in friendships in the years before phones compared to now. The author concludes that the extensive phone usage in today’s society is harmfull for crucial socialization skills. In Sherry Turkle’s “Stop Googling. Let’s Talk.” the use of logos, pathos, ethos, is used presenting her argument to the readers of this article, by presenting research, exclusive experience, and personal emotion to woo the attention of her readers.

Technology, especially smartphones, has played a key role in encouraging connectivity between people all over the world. Snapchat, Facebook, and instagram allows us to keep in touch with our friends and family (Document 1). Never before in human history have we had this level of connectedness with others. Smartphones also allow us to have answers to any question we might have, which gives us the opportunity to transcend the boundaries of what we previously believed conversations to be and talk about the real issues; what we make of these facts (Document 6). Having this freedom to develop our conversations gives us the chance to further our connection with people and truly understand more about them.

A professor at the Program in Science, Technology, and Society at MIT, Sherry Turkle talks about how kids today are attached and somewhat obsessed with technology in her article called “Growing Up Tethered.” Turkle interviews with many different teenagers about the different types of technology they possess and how it impacts their everyday life. She talks a lot about how technology can do away with our privacy and also how people feel the need to be constantly connected. Turkle mainly focuses on the point of how there is a constant need for connection and people are obsessed with knowing who is on the other end of a phone call or waiting for a text back. In her article, she interviews teenagers who are willing to lie or put themselves in danger in order to stay connected. People have lost the meaning of a true relationship and it is very evident in Turkle’s essay that people are too connected with technology to connect with the people around them.

In the article, “How Facebook Makes Us Unhappy”, the author, Maria Konnikova deals with the issue whether Facebook makes its users unhappy. She is being neutral as she does not use bias language in this article. She provides various researches which proved that Facebook does make its users unhappy. Besides, there are also research findings which proved that Facebook does give some benefits. The author used general languages through which she is being objective to inform the public about this issue.

In the article, “Stop Googling. Let’s Talk.” by Sherry Turkle, it talks about how the impact of phones and technology has on our conversations and interactions with people. Turkle talks about how now a days people divide their attention between multiple things, but the main two examples she uses are phones and conversations. By diving their attention, people rarely dive into deep conversations. They tend to have shallow conversations with people because they are constantly checking their phones at every vibrate or ring, which, in shallow conversations allows them to go in and out of the conversation without missing any important details. Turkle states that, “the mere presence of a phone on a table between them (two people) or in the periphery of their vision changes both what they talk about and the degree of connection they feel.” While this may be true, along with the other studies on how technology is detrimental to society, there as also positives aspects that contribute to society as well.

Sherry Turkle argues that the dependency on technology in society eliminates the ability to communicate in her essay “the flight of the conversation.” Similarly, Paul Barnwell criticizes societies’ technological dependence but narrows the conversation to the current generation of high school students in his essay, “My Students Don’t Know How to Have a Conversation.” While both authors intend to argue the necessity for making conversation ultimately Turkle better identifies the issue and reaches a wider audience.

Nowadays, technology devices become plays an important role in our daily lives, especially in adolescents’ categories. While there is a very clear argument for how the technology is effected on us and causing social isolation as we know, but in another way is also the argument that these technologies are helping us to become more social in our society. This is very probably because we have a good and perfect ability to communicate with each other. Despite long distances. We all know that the goal of technology is to make our lives easier and more efficient. I think that every future may bring technology, it will help us, but the same time, mobile phones may bring us some bad things that will leave a bad fingerprint in our societies

For example, chatting through technology has its flaws, when compared to talking in real life. Nowadays, when people text, people can not express emotions, tone, or voice, like people could with talking face to face (Toadvine). This is important because emotions are a huge part of talking with another person, and technology does not allow the use of emotions, tone, or voice. Additionally, the introduction of phones to society has changed the way people talk to each other, and this may be a bad thing. Melissa Nilles, an Arts & Entertainment editor has stated, “Instead of spending time in person with friends, we just call, text or instant message them. It may seem simpler, but we ultimately end up seeing friends face to face a lot less” (Nilles). This shows that humans nowadays now have less experiences of the joy of true, face to face human interaction, because people text and use phones to talk. Also, Social skills in children are becoming worse from technology. Victoria Cobb, a graduate from the University of Dayton, has noticed that children have less social skills due to technology that they use in day to day life (Cobb). This shows that children that use technology can not socialize like their parents did, when there was a lot less technology in day to day

Technology is getting bigger and bigger each day. With the advance of smart phones, tablets, and laptops it’s become much easier for people to keep in contact with their social media. People can easily stay in touch with friends all the time on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram and by texting. Many people are taking advantage of that opportunity and that seems like people are becoming more sociable but actually it is making people less sociable. People are spending too much time on their phones instead of having a face to face conversation. “A recent Pew Research survey of adults in the U.S. found that 71% use Facebook at least occasionally, and 45% of Facebook users check the site several times a day.” (WSJ, 2015). This essay will discuss how technology can make people more sociable and less sociable.

As technology continues to improve, the usage of cell phones continues to increase too. The increase in using cell phones over the last decade has been unbelievable; and the cell phone itself has become a common facilitate for all ages all around the world. When people hear about the cell phone,majority of them usually see the positive sides and its benefits, but ignoring the risks of this small device which isquite serious and somehow dangerous.It has bad effects on health, it is a disturbing tool, because some people talk so loud in the public places which may annoy others and also sometimes it may be the cause that we forget about some works, and etc. So, majority of people who became aware of these disadvantagesin European and American countriesbegan using their cell phones less than before.

Online social media is a term used to describe the interaction and activities between individuals or groups of people, exchanging different ideas over the internet. Social media has a huge and significant impact on young people as they are gaining popularity all over the world. Children grow up in an environment surrounded by smart mobile devices, computers and interactive social networking applications such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.