In the brave new world of Facebook, “smart phones” and Twitter, where both teens and adults would rather type than talk, are we more in touch but more isolated than ever before?
Psychologist Sherry Turkle, who has researched technology’s effects on society for more than three decades, explores this seeming contradiction in her new book, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other, released earlier this year by Basic Books. She will share her insights (face-to-face!) in a talk Thursday, March 24 at Washington College.
Sponsored by the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, the event will begin at 6:30 p.m. with a book signing, followed by a 7 p.m. talk in Decker Theatre, Gibson Center for the Arts, on the College campus, 300 Washington Avenue. (Turkle was originally scheduled to visit Chestertown in early February, but had to postpone her trip because of extreme weather.)
Tagged “an important, controversial new book” by the Boston Globe, Turkle’s provocative work has generated a great deal of media buzz, recently winning its author a guest appearance on The Colbert Report. The Guardian (UK) highlighted the book as a “cri de coeur” for putting down the BlackBerry, ignoring Facebook, and shunning Twitter, applauding it for its success in sparking debate about the merits of social networking.
Turkle is Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and also the founder and director of MIT’s Initiative on Technology and Self. Dubbed “the Margaret Mead of digital culture” by an MIT colleague, she has been profiled in the New York Times, Scientific American, and Wired Magazine and has been a featured media commentator for CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, and NPR.
“Anxiety is part of the new connectivity,” Turkle finds, and these “anxieties migrate, proliferate.” Places like Facebook foster self-expression, but that self is often a fabrication. The same is true in social networking games such as Second Life, where participants create avatars that are better-looking, smarter, and more accomplished than themselves. This constant and intense connectedness often gets in the way of building a more real, face-to-face network of friendships, and may even interference with psychological development. Turkle argues that this generation of teenagers, accustomed to interacting with others through machines, are less empathetic than their predecessors, less mindful of the feelings of those around them.
“Social media has become an ingrained part of most of our lives,” says Adam Goodheart, Hodson Trust-Griswold Director of the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience. “But as Sherry Turkle reminds us, it’s not something we should embrace without question.”
The talk and book signing are free and open to the public. Co-sponsors include the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, the Department of Psychology, and two student groups, Psychology Club and Psi Chi, the Washington College chapter of the national psychology honor society. For more on Alone Together, visit https://www.alonetogetherbook.com.
About the Starr Center
Based in the Custom House along Chestertown’s colonial waterfront, the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College fosters the art of written history and explores our nation’s past – particularly the legacy of its Founding era – in innovative ways, through educational programs, scholarship and public outreach. For more information on the Center, visit https://starrcenter.washcoll.edu.
Pam says
Speaking from an older person’s perspective, I find the social media such as facebook, tweeting, texting, etc., to be very efficient methods of instant contact. However, I think that it limits our ability to connect and converse with each other on a more personal level. You can’t pick up on emotional cues via the internet like you can in person or on the phone. I have to chuckle when on facebook I see people with 275 friends. Really, can you rely on all those friends when you need emotional or physical contact? Yes, I do go on facebook, mostly to see pictures of a grandchild, but for the most part, I prefer the telephone or an up close and personal visit. That’s just me, I know how popular all the electronic connections are, they’re just not for me. I think they need to be used in moderation, like all things in life.
Buddy Hodges says
I look forward to reading the book. It reminds me of the book Bowling Alone. It is good that this important topic is being studied academically with scientific research instead of mere opinion. We “oldies” have a tendency to be alarmed by the changes in habits of the younger generation. The incredible amount of time youngsters spend glued to small screens is bound to have some impact.
I have to smile when I wonder what the “millennial generation” would think a telephone “party line” was. 😉 Yes, I grew up with party lines and then rotary dial telephones. I love the internet for all its amazing resources, which may be taken for granted by the younger generations. I love communication technology — AND relationships.
This topic is of special interest to me, because relationships and networking have been the main focus of my life. I taught Social Psychology. Now I blog about internet-based relationships at RelatingOnline.com, where the above topic is a central theme.
While I am concerned about the detriment (even to myself) caused by constant hunching over a small screen at the expense of physical and social activity, I am not so sure that it actually makes us more isolated. In fact, I think there is a compensatory benefit in being able to communicate more often and with more people, and at greater distances. This week on Facebook I was able to communicate with my grandson in Japan more than I had done all year. I have made acquaintances all over the world, and some are becoming real friends. I like the opportunity to find interesting people whom I would never have met any other way.
The key is to complement digital channels with offline interaction. A saving grace for the young may be their inherent biological and psychological attractions (and hormones), which may motivate them to reach out and touch one another. I was going to say, “in real life,” but I believe all media can be incorporated into real life.