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

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