Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age by Sherry Turkle

In the 30 years Sherry Turkle has studied people’s relationships with technology, she’s noticed a disturbing trend: the very technologies that were meant to help people connect more efficiently and productively with each other have instead contributed to the demise of face-to-face conversations and to “a crisis of empathy that has diminished us at home, at work, and in public life.”

In Reclaiming Conversation, Turkle asserts that conversation—“a talking cure”—is the remedy. She shares numerous anecdotes of the failures of technology to enhance people’s humanity and, in contrast, offers hopeful guidelines for reclaiming conversation. These include admitting our vulnerability to  technologies; setting aside “sacred spaces” at home, school, work, and in the public domain that are free of technological devices; and embracing solitude in order to develop creativity and experience restoration. (Penguin Press)