Stop Googling Let's Talk Summary

In the excerpt of her article “Stop Googling. Let’s Talk”, Sherry Turkle argues that as technology becomes a larger part of our everyday lives, the interactions we have with other people become less personal and we lose valuable communication skills. This is ironic because technology (especially the cell phone and its social media capabilities) is intended to improve our communication with other people and make the world more connected. Yet, as Turkle explains, “Even a silent phone disconnects us”. When we keep our phones present in conversations with others, the “conversation is kept relatively light” so that our attention can shift “from the people in the room to the world [we] can find on [our] phone[s]”. This is troubling because empathy

and intimacy lack in conversations in which we don’t make eye contact with the person across from us or we don’t recognize his or her posture or tone. A 2010 study by researchers at the University of Michigan “found a 40 percent decline in empathy among college students, with most of the decline taking place after 2000”. As technology becomes ever more ubiquitous, it’s clear that it must be at least partially to blame for the decline in empathy we are experiencing. Turkle goes on to clarify that it’s not phones themselves that are the problem, it’s that phones are “in the landscape” of our conversations. Simply putting our phones away and being engaged with the other person when we are talking with others is key to an effective conversation.
Turkle’s argument can be strengthened from a psychological perspective as well.

Humans have selective attention, meaning the ability to react to certain stimuli in our environment over others when several occur at the same time. In other words, our brains are often focusing on our phones and not the person across from us when we are in a conversation because we simply can not focus our attention on both. While we may hear the voice of the other person in a conversation, we are not giving them the attention (and, thus, respect) he or she deserves while our phones are also out. We aren’t allowing “ourselves to be fully present and vulnerable” in a conversation of which we demonstrate empathy for one another. This ultimately damages who we are as humans. In addition, as people become increasingly distracted by messages and alerts on their phones, they may experience social isolation. This can lead to feelings of depression and loneliness. In fact, a poll by Slate found that the number of adults who describe themselves as lonely has doubled since 1980. The more time we spend with our technology, the less time we spend engrossed in meaningful face-to-face conversations. While we can be connected to hundreds of people online, we are missing out on worthwhile interactions with others. It is in these direct conversations, Turkle explains, that “we learn who we are”. This is why it is so important to merely put our phones away when we are in conversations with others. It keeps us focused on the words others are saying, not the words on our

screens.