Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age. Edited by Sherry Turkle (2015), New York, NY: Penguin Press. $17.25 hardcover $14.99 Kindle edition

• Date: 01 July 2017
• Published date: 01 July 2017
• Author: Allison Weidhaas
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12077

190 New Technology, Work and Employment © 2017 Brian Towers (BRITOW) and

John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

New Technology, Work and Employment 32:2

ISSN 0268-1072

Book Review

Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age

Sherry Turkle (2015), New York, NY: Penguin Press. $17.25 hardcover $14.99 Kindle

edition

Sherry Turkle, a trained sociologist, licenced psychologist and MIT professor, ex-

amines how conversation changes as technology became more pervasive in our

lives. Turkle’s new book builds a compelling argument that causes one to reflect

on whether we are too connected.

Turkle provides readers with a well- structured argument that builds a case for

her thesis that, as a society, we have lost the ability to have empathetic conver-

sations. She argues this flight from conversation has serious repercussions. Building

on Henry David Thoreau’s philosophy of the three chairs for self, friends and

community, Turkle carefully draws the reader through a series of cases built on

both secondary research and primary interviews. These first- person accounts help

the reader to understand the claims she makes, such as, that even a silent mobile

phone disconnects us from conversation or that most people prefer text to talk.

She provides examples in multiple contexts, including within our families, with

significant others, in educational environments, in civic discourse and in our work-

places. She asserts people prefer electronic communication because it offers them

an opportunity to present the best version of themselves, which they can hone

through constant revision. This ‘best version’ is not necessarily an authentic ver-

sion, and this quest for the ‘best’ performance hinders one’s ability to not only

connect, but to learn and grow. Turkle provides examples from the educational

environment in which students prefer to retreat into their phones, rather than

engage in lively classroom debates or visit academics during office hours.

In the section on work, Turkle makes the business case for conversation by

speaking one- on- one with people in organisations that share challenges, such as

meetings where everyone is more engaged in their phones than the discussion,

telework that relies solely on remote communication and what Turkle terms ‘view

from the cockpit,’ which equates to locking oneself into a desktop ‘cockpit’ that

signals one is unavailable for conversation. Yet, it is not just conversation Turkle

cites as a problem; she also suggests our devices with their innate ability to

interrupt, train us to view multi- tasking as a given, when in fact focus enables

us to think deeply, solve problems and be more creative. Instead, the constant

bing of the phone leave us distracted, less focused and with the belief that we

are missing something. Perhaps, as Turkle suggests, what we are missing is the

opportunity to truly concentrate on tasks or conversation without the distraction

of the phone, which has trained us to believe there is potentially something more

important a buzz, beep or finger swipe.

By this point, you may assume Turkle wants to build a landfill with our phones,

but instead, she intends to make us more mindful of how we use them. She

asserts we need to reflect on how cell phones move us away from important

conversations, when instead we need to be moving closer. She illustrates how

new graduates tell her they cannot have conversations at work because they lack

the necessary skills. She provides first- person examples of lawyers who attempt

to mentor new attorneys, only to learn they cannot see the value in face- to- face

encounters when they assume an email will suffice. She provides instances of

business deals in which parties would prefer to exchange electronic