“Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age”
A free public lecture by MIT professor Sherry Turkle
Friday, Feb. 3, 7:30 p.m. | UA’s ENR2 Rm N120, 1064 E. Lowell St.
“A generation has grown up feeling that “it would rather text than talk,” along with believing that it is possible to share our attention during almost everything we do. What are the costs of a “flight from conversation” in personal life, among one’s family and friends? What are the costs in the work world? And, most importantly, what can we do about it?
Professor, author, consultant and researcher Sherry Turkle has spent the last 30 years studying the psychology of people’s relationships with technology. She is the Abby Rockefeller Mauze Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology in the Program in Science, Technology and Society at MIT, as well as the founder and current director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self.
Referred to by many as the “Margaret Mead of digital culture,” Professor Turkle has investigated the intersection of digital technology and human relationships from the early days of personal computers to our current world of robotics, artificial intelligence, social networking and mobile connectivity. Her New York Times best-seller, “Reclaiming Conversation™: The Power of Talk in the Digital Age” (Penguin Press, October 2015), focuses on the importance of conversation in digital cultures, including business and the professions.