In this lecture, Sherry Turkle turns her attention to the world of social media and sociable robots. As she puts it, these are technologies are the “architect of our intimacies.” In her most recent book, Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other, Turkle argues that the social media we encounter on a daily basis are presenting us with a moment of temptation. Drawn by the illusion of companionship without the demands of intimacy, we confuse postings and online sharing with authentic communication. We are drawn to sacrifice conversation for mere connection. Turkle suggests that just because we grew up with the Internet, we tend to see it as all grown up, but it is not: Digital technology is still in its infancy and there is ample time for us to reshape how we build it and use it.
Turkle is a professor in the Program in Science, Technology and Society at MIT and the founder and director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self.
“What technology makes easy is not always what nurtures the human spirit.”
– Sherry Turkle
For a brief introduction you can watch her TED talk:
And here is a more extensive lecture she gave at the Chicago Humanities Festival 2011:
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