Adelola Ajayi

Professor Witte

ENGL 101A

4 September 2017

Technology and Its Effects on Conversation

Sherry Turkles article, The Flight From Conversation, published in the New York

Times in 2012, analyzes technology and its effects-- specifically how technology usage impacts

peoples conversation. Turkle argues that today, regardless where people find themselves, they

are always connected to technology. She claims that being connected to technology allows a

person to always feel connected, which prevents them from being alone. Technology has allowed

for everyone to be alone together, causing individuals to be connected to whoever wherever.

She explains that when people are connected to their technology, they put other people at

distance; she refers to this isolation as the Goldilocks effect (Turkle 7).

Furthermore, Turkle goes on to analyze how technology affects what people say and how

they say it through messages; she stresses that with technology, individuals leave out

information, essentially not getting their complete thoughts and feelings out to the other person.

This impacts their conversation and the way in which they make connections. In addition, Turkle

believes that online connection does not substitute for face-to- face conversation. To illustrate

her argument, she provides her own experience by stating, I have often heard the sentiment no

one is listening to me...to have a Facebook page or Twitter feed...each provides automatic

listeners(Turkle 15). Essentially, she states that technology cares about people more than people

care other about individuals (Turkle 17). According to her, electronic devices have allowed for

individuals to essentially clean up, the way in which one individual connects and interacts with

another.

Turkle concludes her article emphasizing that in order to create face- to- face conversation

again without the help of technology, people should make their environment device free. To
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remedy the technology dependency, she advises that people start interacting without the use of

electronics because this utilization can lead to people being alone, which prevents them from

self-reflection.
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Works Cited

Turkle, S. (2017). The Flight From Conversation. The New York Times. [online]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/opinion/sunday/the-flight-from-

conversation.html?emc=eta1.