Sherry Turkle
B.Jun 18, 1948-Present
Digital Sociologist

Sherry Turkle Hand-Picked Quotes

Sherry Turkle is an influential American academic and professor, primarily known for her work in the areas of psychology, sociology, and technology studies. She has become a prominent figure in analyzing the relationships between people and technology, particularly focusing on how digital culture impacts human psychology.

Turkle earned her Ph.D. in Sociology and Personality Psychology from Harvard University. She is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she has been since the early 1980s, and is the founder and current director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self. Her work is interdisciplinary, blending insights from sociology, psychology, and computer science.

Turkle is renowned for her studies on the psychology of online behavior, digital culture, and human-robot interaction. She has extensively researched the impact of digital communication technologies on human relationships, identity, and self-perception. Her findings often challenge the optimistic view that technology invariably improves human communication and social interaction.

Her most celebrated works include "The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit" and "Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet." In these books, Turkle explores how computers and digital technology are not merely tools but have become integral parts of people's lives, affecting the way individuals think, feel, and relate to others.

Turkle's later work, such as "Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other," delves into the paradox of modern connectivity. She argues that despite being constantly connected through technology, people are experiencing a decline in genuine communication and empathy.

Her research and publications have made significant contributions to our understanding of the digital age, offering critical insights into the complex relationship between humans and technology. Turkle's work continues to be highly relevant as technology becomes increasingly embedded in everyday life.

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In the words of Sherry Turkle:
Someday, someday, but certainly not now, I'd like to learn how to have a conversation.
We all really need to listen to each other, including to the boring bits.
We don't need to reject or disparage technology. We need to put it in its place.
You'll always feel lonely if you always need validation. People don't like to be around those kinds of people.
Robots want to love us because the field of artificial intelligence has programmed robots to say they want to love us.
Teenagers would rather text than talk. They feel calls would reveal too much.
Everybody wants a robot that will do psychotherapy. But If you don't have empathy, you don't have psychotherapy. The robot doesn't know about life.
we seem determined to give human qualities to objects and content to treat each other as things.
Not every advance is progress. Not every new thing is better for us humanly.
I think few people of education enter politics because it seems like a contact blood sport.
What technology makes easy is not always what nurtures the human spirit.
Our mobile devices are so powerful that they don't just change what we do, they're changing who we are.
If you're constantly stimulated by being called away to the buzzing and the excitement of what's on your phone, solitude seems kind of scary.
Technology doesn't just do things for us. It does things to us, changing not just what we do but who we are.
I think that we live in techno-enthusiastic times. We celebrate our technologies because people are frightened by the world we've made.
The computer is a mind machine. It doesn't have its own psychology, but in a way it presents itself as though it does.
We live in a technological universe in which we are always communicating. And yet we have sacrificed conversation for mere connection.
What is so seductive about texting, about keeping that phone on, about that little red light on the BlackBerry, is you want to know who wants you.
People are lonely. The network is seductive. But if we are always on, we may deny ourselves the rewards of solitude.
Technology challenges us to assert our human values, which means that first of all, we have to figure out what they are.
We think constant connection will make us feel less lonely. The opposite is true.
We're smitten with technology. And we're afraid, like young lovers, that too much talking might spoil the romance. But it's time to talk.
I think computers are the ultimate writing tool. I'm a very slow writer, so I appreciate it every day.
My highest value is not that the trains are on time. I want to be free.
In solitude, we find ourselves; we prepare ourselves to come to conversation with something to say that is authentic, ours.
Because you can text while doing something else, texting does not seem to take time but to give you time. This is more than welcome; it is magical.
I've been studying the psychology of online connectivity for more than 30 years.
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