Reclaiming Conversation

Sherry Turkle

We've traded conversation for mere connection, and it's costing us empathy and the ability to be alone with our thoughts. The good news: conversation is resilient, and we can choose it again.

An MIT sociologist's argument that our flight from open-ended, face-to-face conversation to frictionless texting and social media is eroding empathy, self-knowledge, and the capacity for solitude — and a case for deliberately bringing conversation back.