RUNNING HEAD: MAGLOV TURKLE PAPER

Turkle, ​Reclaiming Conversation​ Paper

Sara Maglov

Loyola University

ET 690

Spring 2019
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Turkle’s Narrative

Turkle’s narrative is one that emphasizes conversation and human connection. Turkle

asserts “Face-to-face conversation is the most human--and humanizing thing we do.” (Turkle,

2015). The narrative of face-to-face conversation, according to Turkle, can teach us so much

more than the abbreviated version of conversation we have adopted through text messaging,

emailing and posting online. Turkle’s argument is that traditional conversation with people can

teach us how to listen and to empathize. (Turkle, 2015). Turkle’s narrative also highlights that

personal conversation in a face-to-face setting has positive social-emotional implications as well.

According to the text, traditional conversation brings participants “joy of being heard, of being

understood.” (Turkle, 2015). Finally, Turkle argues being an active participant in conventional

discussion makes us more reflective and helps us grow and develop throughout our lives.

While Turkle’s narrative champions face-to-face human interaction she recognizes

technology is a part of our everyday lives and we must strike a balance in order to preserve what

makes us human but also continue to change with the times. Turkle states: “mobile technology is

here to stay, along with all the wonders it brings. Yet it is time for us to consider how it may get

in the way of other things we hold dear--and how once we recognize this we can take action…”.

(Turkle, 2015). Turkle describes how technology can be positive in some ways and describes

feeling connected to her daughter that lives across the country through the random texts she

receives from her each day. (Turkle, 2015). However, Turkle cautions people to not avoid

face-to-face conversation entirely. Turkle writes: “Without conversation, studies show that we

are less empathic, less connected, less creative and fulfilled.” (Turkle, 2015). To avoid
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transforming an entire generation into one that is lesser than ones before it, Turkle’s narrative

calls for a change and a balance to ensure space is made for traditional conversation. Turkle

charges current generations that champion online conversation and connection as well as

generations that learned to converse through more traditional measures. It is the responsibility of

all humans to strike a balance between our communication via technology and conversation held

in the traditional arena.

To me, Turkle’s narrative and call to action is an important one as a mother, educator and

human. As a parent, I was drawn to Turkle’s argument that: “When we have our mobile devices

with us, we see that we turn away from our children…”. (Turkle, 2015). Each day, I feel as

though time has moved too quickly and my young children are growing at a pace that makes me

proud and emotional all at once. When I truly think about the time I have spent on my phone or

computer texting, emailing or finishing “one more thing” for work, I am scared of how much I

may have missed. Even in those moments when the phone is on silent, there is a draw to it to

know what notifications might have come through, or news feeds might have been updated.

Turkle argues: “But as digital connection becomes an even larger part of their day, they risk

ending up with lives of less.”. (Turkle, 2015). While this particular quote was in reference to

college students, I connected it to parenting as I feel the more connected to devices we are as

parents the less of our children we will have and our time with them is already far less than one

would ever want it to be. Turkle also writes: “The real emergency may be parents and children

not having conversations or sharing a silence between them that gives each the time to bring up a

funny story or a troubling thought.”. (Turkle, 2015). I feel we owe it our children and ourselves
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as their parents to take some of technology’s power away and form true and meaningful bonds

without the constant presence of technology.

As a teacher, the implications of an always connected generation are frightening and

further support Turkle’s notion that we have to have balance in our lives between communicating

through technology and communicating face-to-face. All of the students in my class this year,

and for the past several years, have had access to personal cell phones. Outside of the obvious

distraction they cause in the classroom, they are also getting in the way of students’

development. Turkle argues that students whom have grown up with access to smartphones

“...don’t know how to begin and end conversations. They have a hard time with eye contact.

They say talking on the phone makes them anxious.”. (Turkle, 2015). These are skills that are

vital for success in the workplace and cannot be taught through access to technology to even the

most gifted of our students. I believe technology gets in the way of joint problem solving,

collaboration and learning from the experience of others. These skill,s that we usually have no

problem fostering in the classroom, particularly at the elementary level, are becoming harder to

provide for our students while we complete with the allure of smartphones. Therefore, as Turkle

argues, we have to teach ways for students to balance and continue to interact in the most

traditional senses.

I feel Turkle’s narrative and encouragement to change our ways is beneficial to all

humans. Throughout her text, Turkle points out that we are in emotional danger and losing

empathy, feeling and happiness by our constant need to be connected digitally. (Turkle, 2015).

Turkle cites a study that demonstrates that the more connected an individual, the less able they

are to identify the feelings of others or even the feeling they are experiencing themselves.
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(Turkle, 2015). If we become people who are unable to identify feelings, we will be unable to

meaningfully connect with one another and our relationships will suffer greatly. I believe this

also stunts our emotional growth and ability to practice empathy. An article by P.J. Manney

argues that we are able to gain and build empathy through “real-life observation or story telling”

and that at the heart of it, empathy relies on communication. (Manney, 2015). Although we can

mimic communication via technology without more traditional measures, as Turkle describes,

we are not deeply connecting with one another and our relationships are simpler and more

superficial which impacts our emotional growth. Without this emotional connection and our

ability to learn and grow from one another, there is a chance human relationships can be in

danger.

Turkle’s narrative is one that urges us to take a close look at our relationships with

technology and to be sure we are still paying close attention to forming relationships in a more

traditional sense. Her narrative is one that praises the benefits from face-to-face communication,

finding solitude and making deep, meaningful relationships. It is a narrative that recognizes

technology is here to stay but that we must be responsible in our usage of it so that it is not able

to use us.

The Three Chairs and Education

Henry David Thoreau wrote: ​“I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for

friendship, three for society.” (Thoreau, 1854). ​Turkle uses the idea of Thoreau’s three chairs to

support and further explain her narrative regarding technology.

Just as written by Thoreau, Turkle’s first chair refers to solitude and connects to

technology by asserting the idea that we need to be able to disconnect from technology and
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spend time alone to grow and evolve as humans. (Turkle, 2015). Turkle defines solitude as: “not

reacting to external stimuli.” and argues that even when we sit quietly alone online, we are not

practicing solitude. (Turkle, 2015). A constant need to be connected and “with” others can stifle

creativity and imagination, decreases engagement and harms our ability to problem solve

independently. As educators, the first chair is one we can consider in the classroom in a number

of ways. Teachers can model solitude by requiring device free time while having students work

on a preferred activity in the quiet space of the classroom or just outside of the school walls.

Turkle describes this practice as “alone with”. (Turkle, 2015). Students develop an ability to be

alone and to be creative with the peace of mind knowing their trusted teacher is nearby. This

later translates into healthy practices where students are comfortable thinking and working alone

and are confident in their own abilities. Constant connectivity can also make it difficult for us to

truly concentrate on one task. We split our attention amongst many things and this practice in the

classroom can be damaging. Students find it difficult to engage with long texts and seek

immediate answers and require prompt feedback and encouragement. This translates to poor

practices outside of the classroom where students become employees that cannot work alone,

have difficulties problem solving and need reinforcement employers may not want to give out

regularly. In the classroom, students should be presented with projects that require problem

solving and creativity rather than tasks that can be answered correctly or incorrectly by

completing a search. Teachers can foster more independence and confidence by not only praising

the final product but pointing out the hard work that was done throughout the entire process.

Students can be encouraged to participate in self-reflection and “grading” of their assignments to

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truly think about the work they have done and ways in which they can improve. These practices

would be beneficial in all job fields as well as throughout adult life in general.

The second chair refers to our relationships and discusses those with our family, friends

and our romantic relationships. Turkle tackles how the use of technology, specifically as a form

of communication, impacts our relationships with others. In Turkle’s description of the second

chair she argues that without traditional forms of communication, particularly with young

children, we are no longer providing role models for discussion and for interacting with others.

(Turkle, 2015). Turkle also discusses how attention shared with devices produces negative

behaviors in children as they are looking for attention in any way possible. (Turkle, 2015).

Finally, Turkle asserts that children who use technology frequently have a more difficult time

sustaining attention. (Turkle, 2015). In the classroom, teachers can combat these negative trends

associated with digital communication. Teachers can foster communication and problem solving

skills through the implementation of classroom meetings where devices are turned off and

students are encouraged to speak openly with one another. Meetings would require modeling

early on and students may need topics of conversation presented however, over time, students

could develop the ability to facilitate productive conversations with little support from their

teachers. Rather than solving problems for students, teachers can provide opportunities for

mediated conversation that allows the students to problem solve and work through their feelings

as well as the feelings of the others involved. Teachers can address students’ need for attention

by providing it, undivided throughout the day. By designating times in which we are not

checking emails, our phones or looking online for lesson ideas we can engage with our students

more and provide them with the positive attention they need. During indoor recess or morning
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homeroom, rather than sitting behind our desks catching up on emails we can close our

computers and lock up our phones and let our students know we are available to them. These

non-academic times can be great opportunities to connect with our students and form

relationships. By making ourselves more available and modeling face-to-face connection we may

be able to reduce the number of negative attention seeking incidences in our classrooms. Finally,

teachers can address the concerns outlined by Turkle’s second chair by reading to and modeling

reading with their students. Turkle discusses how today’s students “are less able than their peers

of only a decade ago to read books that require sustained attention.” (Turkle, 2015). These

difficulties have been linked to spending long periods of time online. A study shows brain

circuits are not properly formed when children spend too much time online at a young age.

Turkle’s text argues that reading fiction texts to students mimics conversation and can be helpful

in building the circuits required for sustained attention. (Turkle, 2015). Therefore, teachers

should spend time reading to their students and modeling good conversation skills. Teachers of

older students that may not enjoy shared reading as much can carve out time where everyone,

including the teacher, reads. Modeling this habit can teach students the value of shutting down

devices and opening a book. Building these reading habits at a young age can translate to

improved conversation skills and and increased ability to sustain attention later in life. Teachers

can institute habits in their classrooms that provide models for conversation and problem solving

skills, allow them to form relationships with their students and improve their overall classroom

performance by paying attention to Turkle’s second chair.

Turkle’s final chair touches on the impact communication through technology has on our

education and our careers. Turkle argues that the constant need to be connected and checking in
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on devices, promotes multi-tasking and while this concept sounds productive it is in face

counter-productive. (Turkle, 2015). In the text it is discussed that when attention is divided there

is no true attention being paid to any tasks and our performance in all areas suffers. (Turkle,

2015). Turkle further asserts that the constant use of technology makes us impatient and in need

of answers quickly and we no longer value the process of learning new information. (Turkle,

2015). Teachers can work to help students combat multitasking behaviors as well as the need for

instant answers. Much of the district provided curriculum is online including the texts and

assignments teachers “pass out” to their students. One difficulty with this is the temptation to

access other things while logged on completing an assignment. By opening a new window or a

tab, students’ attention is immediately divided and they are no longer performing to their best

ability. Teachers can instead provide students with traditional paper copies and model

paper-pencil note taking. In this way, teachers are helping their students attend to one thing at a

time and are providing them the opportunity to put forth their best effort. In order to help

students understand and value the process of problem solving and learning teachers can shift

their focus from always grading the end product to grading or judging the process taken. Rather

than giving their students an answer to a question, a teacher can point their students to a resource

and model how to search for information. Modeling the problem solving process and later

facilitating it can help students find the value in the hard work it takes to answer a question and

can lead to new questions, thoughts and discoveries.

By considering Turkle’s narrative through the lens of Thoreau’s three chairs, teachers can

address some of the concerns associated with replacing traditional face-to-face conversation and
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human connection with technology. Educators can help students strike a balance between the

technology of today and the values of human connection that have long been established.

References

Manney, P. (2015). Is Technology Destroying Empathy? Live Science. Retrieved March 11,

2019,from

https://www.livescience.com/51392-will-tech-bring-humanity-together-or-tear-it-apart.ht

ml.

Thoreau, Henry David, 1817-1862. (1992). ​Walden ; and, Resistance to civil government :

​ ew York
authoritative texts, Thoreau's journal, reviews, and essays in criticism. N

:Norton

Turkle, S. (2015). Reclaiming conversation: ​The power of talk in a digital age.​ NY, NY: Penguin

Books.
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