Analysis Of Sherry Turrkle The Flight Of Conversation

For many, the preferred mode of conversation today is through texting. Sherry Turkle explores this topic in her excerpt “The Flight from Conversation”. She uses paradoxes and pathos to prove we live in a technological universe in which we are always communicating, yet we have sacrificed conversation for mere connection. To start, Turkle used paradoxes to strengthen her argument. Turkle writes, “Our colleagues want to go to that board meeting but pay attention only to what interests them. To sum this seems like a good idea, but we can end up hiding from one another, even as we are constantly connected to one another” (5). This describes that our colleagues, even though they are at board meetings, will only focus on being online instead of having good conversations with their coworkers. Even though they are in the same room as their coworkers, they avoid communication as they are all connected online. By using the paradox “We can end up hiding from one another, even as we are constantly connected to one another”, Turkle makes the reader stop and read the sentence again, bringing attention to the fact that we have sacrifice conversation for mere connection. Turkle also writes, “We’ve become accustomed to a new way of being ‘alone together.’ Technology-enabled, we are able to be with one another, and also elsewhere, connected too wherever we want to be” (4). This describes that even though we are constantly with/around each other, we decide not to have conversations with each other. Turkle argues that we instead prefer mere connection online, where we are in control of what happens. By using the paradox “alone together” (4),

She uses paradoxes to make the reader re-read important sentences. She also uses pathos, which creates an emotional experience for the audience. Overall, conversations are important to society because they are how we exchange ideas, so it is important that we do not lose