Conversing in the Digital Age

"Reclaiming Conversation" by Sherry Turkle could possibly hold one answer to the question, "How can we become more empathetic and how can we teach others to be more empathetic?" Is it really as simple as putting down our mobile devices and having face to face conversations. How does this teach us empathy? In an interview with the author in 2015 from The Atlantic magazine, she says,  " The empathy that I’m talking about is a psychological capacity to put yourself in the place of another person and imagine what they are going through. It has neurological underpinnings—we know that we’re “wired” to do it, because when you put young people in a summer camp where there are no devices, within five days their capacity to watch a scene, and then successfully identify what the people in the scene might be feeling, begins to go back up again from being depressed when they first arrived, armed with their devices. We suppress this capacity by putting ourselves in environme...

The book I have been reading is about empathy. I want to relate that to something personal for me because I am very upset with the lack of empathy I am witnessing from many people across our nation. I truly believe we are losing our ability to empathize. Perhaps Sherry Turkle really has a point and one way to help fix it.  Last night was the opening season game for the Washington Nationals. I watched Dr. Fauci throw the first pitch. I watched as every player kneeled in solidarity for BLM during the Star Spangled Banner.  I watched them all stand for the National Anthem. And then I watched the game.  But..... What really struck me was the speech that was aired while all the players stood in unity holding a long black ribbon. It was Morgan Freeman's speech that struck a chord with me and it has everything to do with what our country is going through right now with social injustice. We need more people to show empathy.  Here is what he said:       In orde...

Mobile devices- we just can't live without them anymore. In a TIME Mobility Poll, 84% of the people surveyed said they could not go a single day without their mobile device. One in four people check their mobile device every 10 minutes.   What does this mean for humanity and the loss of empathy among us when we all start turning to our mobile devices for companionship? How many people turn to their phones when they are lonely? How many people talk to Siri, or Alexa, or Cortana?    Sherry Turkle, in her book "Reclaiming Conversation" explains that Artificial Intelligence could turn us into believing that robots have feelings and can really understand us and therefore, will be our friends. Movies such as "The Electric Grandma", and "Her" portray this exact scenario. In the movie 'Her", a recently divorced writer decides to open an operating system on his computer that will 'attend to his every need.' As the writer develops a virtual rela...

The author of Reclaiming Conversation, Sherry Turkle does not condemn the use of modern technology. In fact, the author is quite adamant that mobile devices have done much to improve the learning and connecting that we do now as a society. Currently with the pandemic, we all have had to adjust to communicating virtually more than we probably used to. Meetings with colleagues at work, celebrations with families, and many other occasions have required conversing using mobile devices. However, the heart of this book focuses on the real need to have face to face conversations. If we don't, we stand to lose the ability to empathize with each other.  Studies show that as a society, we are becoming addicted to our mobile devices. So, while we need to use our mobile devices, it is wise to keep our use in check and whenever possible,  have those important conversations when you can look your friends in the eyes and say what you need to say. https://www.psychalive.org/cell-phone-addicti...