Sherry Turkle

A key interlocutor in Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism, cited repeatedly on the difference between conversation and connection. Newport quotes her premise that “face-to-face conversation is the most human — and humanizing — thing we do,” the setting where we learn to listen and “develop the capacity for Empathy.” He also cites her research that just five days at a camp without phones or internet was enough to induce major increases in campers’ well-being and sense of connection. Newport agrees with Turkle’s diagnosis but pushes past her prescription: he argues that her recommendation to simply make more space for quality conversation is likely to fail unless you first reform your relationship with the digital tools — like social media and texting — that force a trade-off between conversation and connection.

Context: Sherry Turkle (b. 1948) is an American sociologist and clinical psychologist, a professor at MIT studying the social and psychological effects of technology. Her books include Alone Together (2011) and Reclaiming Conversation (2015), the source of the conversation-vs-connection arguments Newport engages.

Where this appears

• Digital Minimalism — cited repeatedly on conversation as the most humanizing act, the empathy it builds, and the phone-free camp study; Newport endorses her diagnosis but argues her fix needs tool-reform first