In her imminent new book Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age, Sherry Turkle has written about her continuing insights into the personal and social benefits of conversation in our lives, especially as we navigate the online, digital and app-driven landscape. Turkle’s previous book Alone Together is an insightful observation on how our technologies shape our lives and relationships, distorting our emotional and psychological capacities. As noted in this post about phone free conversation, her concerns reflect my frequent practice of door checking smart phones at some of the conversation experiences that I create. In this New York Times essay extracted from the forthcoming book, Turkle asserts “Conversation is the antidote to the algorithmic way of looking at life because it teaches you about fluidity, contingency and personality.”
Conversation is an intrinsically human capacity and offers us a curative to the inhuman. How have you experienced a rise or decline in your conversational life? Does talking deeply and honestly with others seem emotionally fraught? Do you want to reclaim conversation in your life?