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"Face-to-face conversation is the most human-and humanizing-thing we do. Fully present to one another, we learn to listen. Its where we develop the capacity for empathy" (Turkle, S., 2016).

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Reclaiming Conversation Summary
SuperSummary, a modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, offers high-quality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics. This one-page guide includes a plot summary and brief analysis of Reclaiming Conversation by Sherry Turkle.
Reclaiming Conversation is a 2015 self-help book by American author Sherry Turkle. Focusing on the advent of digital devices that draw our attention away from interpersonal situations, Turkle contends that we must strive to recover the lost art of authentic conversation. She connects conversation to positive human qualities and virtues, including empathy, love, and focused awareness, proposing practical actions readers can take to train these essential features of communication. She also puts forward a critique of the digital age at large, showing that increased connection through mediating technologies ironically divides and alienates certain parts of us. The book has been lauded for identifying many key problems with the technologies modern societies take for granted, debunking the notion that unbridled technological advancement is necessarily good.

Turkle opens with the general claim that technology has changed civilization dramatically, for better and for worse. The major reason that technology is not unilaterally good, in her view, is that it stunts our human need for conversation. Begetting loneliness and anxiety, this deficiency dampens our ability to put ourselves in others' shoes. She argues that one of the great challenges of the digital age will be figuring out how to get our conversational abilities back.

Turkle's first supporting argument for her claim about our diminished conversational abilities is that digital media simply cannot stand in for real, in-person conversation. Humans require authentic, face-to-face connections to understand and relate to each other. Digital communication does not provide the vulnerability and real-time responsiveness required for key social abilities to manifest. She cites many studies that demonstrate that cell phones diminish conversations' topical depth, length, and corresponding feelings of closeness, empathy, and trust. Studies have even found that the presence of muted cell phones substantively impairs how people communicate, usually steering speech content into superficial directions. Conversely, studies comparing different interaction styles have found that face-to-face interaction is strongly correlated with stronger emotional bonds.

Turkle asserts that times of reflection and solitude are vital but neglected components of human wellbeing. The main reason for their erasure from modern life has been the proliferation of devices that bring endless streams of media before our eyes on demand. Moreover, she makes a key distinction between real solitude, which consists of a meditative state or focused awareness, and the time we spend alone consuming media from digital devices. Developmental psychologists have found that our deepest thoughts-the thoughts that make us "ourselves"-only occur when we are completely undistracted. Where loneliness divides and distracts us, true solitude activates parts of our brain that translate experience and emotion into our core identities. Turkle suggests that the disintegration we feel in modern life is due to our confusing loneliness as solitude.

To help nurture solitude in young, developing minds, Turkle presents an imperative for parents to get off their own phones to attend to their kids. She argues that how parents communicate with their children is one of the most foundational parts of childhood development. Childhood presents a critical window for learning to communicate closely and for developing empathy. Studies show that when parents ignore their children, they tend to grow up to be less empathetic. Turkle also cites studies that seem to undermine the utility of digital intimacy solutions, such as dating apps. In one study, one group was allowed to choose from a vast array of chocolates; another was allowed to choose from a much more restricted range. The participants who chose from the restricted set perceived the chocolates as more satisfying. The vast space of choices, whether for a sexual partner or a video game, that phones now present us with, diminish our capacity to savor and remember our experiences. She suggests that virtual environments are generally blameworthy, because they are conducive to attention-scattering and superficial communication.

Turkle concludes by suggesting that only by looking beyond the fad of digital media can we see what our society is really craving. She recommends that her readers make "sacred spaces" in their lives where they nurture interpersonal connection and completely exclude their devices. She suggests, also, that a conversation renaissance might help the state of political discourse in the United States by freeing up people's attention to talk about the issues that directly affect them. Reclaiming Conversation is a hopeful book, outlining how we can teach ourselves to turn away from technology to embrace the critical features of being human.

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Reclaiming Conversation Summary | SuperSummary

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SuperSummary, a modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, offers high-quality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics. This one-page guide includes a plot summary and brief analysis of Reclaiming Conversation by Sherry Turkle. Reclaiming Conversation is a 2015 self-help book by American author Sherry Turkle.

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The public sphere itself appears as a pecific domain-the public domain versus the private. Sometimes the public appears simply as that sector of public opinion that happens to be opposed to the authorities.” (Habermas, J. and Burger, T., 1989)