Alone Together

We have all heard that social media and other modern technologies are not good for us, but Turkle explains exactly why and how such technologies impact our well-being.

I am a mother of a toddler daughter, and even though, through my work as a future anthropologist, I was far from naïve about the impact of technology, I was still shocked to read what cell phones and laptops do to our children's brains. The book convinced me to be extra conscious of how I raise my daughter in a digital age.

Sherry Turkle has written many books about our relationship with technology; in Alone Together she cleverly uses a wide range of technological examples, from robots as carers to curating social media profiles, each draw on her experience and research working at MIT.

She uses technology to hold a lens up to ask what it is to be human and what is important to society both individually and collectively, saying, “We make our technologies, and they, in turn, shape us. So, of every technology we must ask, Does it serve our human purposes? – a question that causes us to reconsider… show more.

The title of Turkle’s book aptly describes our social reality these days, I think.

Even when we’re with others, we’re often focused on our own screens, not the other people in the room. Being alone together is impacting our ability to truly be there for each other. She helped me see how important it is to find ways to maximize technology’s benefits while minimizing its downsides – and prompted me to begin to imagine how to do my part.