Alone+Together-A+Meditation+on+the+Future+of+Teaching+and+Learning

Sherry R. Turkle, PhD

Questioning the use of technology and social networking and its effect on intimacy, solitude, presence. "Thumbs up to using social networking to take down dictators....thumbs down to texting at funerals" Technology can make us forget what we know about life, connection, conversation. Multitasking causes dopamine increases in brain and becomes addicting, but quality of work is degraded. [|Heart Chakra Meditation] "Always on, always on you" culture Findings: Across a wide range of backgrounds, kids report feelings of disconnectedness from parents who are busy with electronic devices. People report feeling anxious, nervous, disoriented when they do not have their phones with them. "Technologies are seductive when it's affordances meet our human vulnerabilities."

We can't get enough of each other as long as there is distance and in amounts we can control.

We substitute conversation with connection. We would rather text than talk. Too busy communicating to think, create. We are alone together.

Steven Colbert asked her "Don;t all these little tweets, or sips, add up to a conversation or a the big gulp we used to have?" She asserts no. We need physical presence, human contact, eye contact and the give and take of personal connection. Students report being fearful of having a real conversation and revealing themselves in person. They are performing selves, not being selves. 1st book: Life on the Screen 1997 (Very popular, featured on Wired magazine) Now: Alone Together 2011 (not so popular)

Mobile Connectivity: Gives us the ability to bow out of real-life at any given moment and we want to all the time.

Teenagers are saying: Difficulty in apologizing face to face Pressure of having to talk on the spot. Too much time on the phone No control of the conversation too much exposure, vulnerability Difficulty of ending a conversation

Schools need to teach the art of conversation. We make assumptions that children know how to start and end a conversation respectfully.