Running Head: MARTINEZ: TURKLE PAPER

Turkle Paper

Sarah Martinez

ET 690

Loyola University Maryland

Dr. Marcovitz
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What narrative is built?

Throughout Sherry Turkles book, Reclaiming Conversation The Power of Talk in a

Digital Age she has created a narrative that explains technology is taking away from

conversation which is having a negative effect on the youth of today. Turkle states throughout

her book that due to the high use of technology, children are not learning empathy. Although it

may come off as though Turkle is anti technology, she is not. Turkle wants us to find a way to

live with our technology, but not have it take away from real conversation.

Throughout Turkles book she refers to Thoreaus metaphor of three chairs; solitude,

friendship and society. Unfortunately, technology is taking away empathy and conversation in all

aspects of life. Turkle focuses on children, but also refers to adults. Families are no longer having

conversations at family dinners. Friends are no longer out to dinner engaged in conversation with

each other. Significant others are no longer spending quality time together. Adults and children

are using technology to entertain themselves, work, play, communicate, and fill the time. What I

dont think people are realizing is Turkles narrative. So many people are guilty of using

technology to avoid hard conversations. But those hard conversations is how we learn empathy.

I think it is important as an educator to keep Turkles metaphor in mind. Turkle doesnt

refer to school and education too much, but it is most definitely effected. When I think about

when I was in elementary school, there were maybe two computers in my classrooms. There

were certainly no laptops, and usually one computer lab in the school. I would occasionally go to

the computer lab to play Oregon Trail. There was no typing papers, math games, or researching

online. Today, if you walked into an elementary school classroom you would most likely see

more computers, or even students with their own laptops on their desks. This is not necessarily a

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bad thing. Turkle also doesnt think that the technology is a bad thing. What is most important is

that we are using the technology for a purpose, and not just to use it.

Chair One: Solitude and Self-reflection

Due to technology, most people dont know what its like to be alone or bored. If you go

out in public and look around most people, young and old are on their phones. Even when

families or a group of friends are out to dinner you will notice them being on their phones instead

of talking to the people right in front of them. While we are waiting for someone, or sitting in a

doctors office waiting to be called back to an appointment we are most likely on our phones.

Turkles issue with this is that no one knows how to be alone with our thoughts. It is hard for

people to reflect on themselves, their days, and their relationships if we are always being

entertained. Turkle had me realize that this is an area where I need to improve. It is a ritual for

me that when I go to bed, I lay in bed and browse my Facebook feed or my Snapchat. This is the

best time for me to reflect on my day. I can think about what went well at work? What changes

should I make for tomorrow? Instead, I put a screen in my face until my eyes are too tired to look

at it. Turkle also mentions that there is hope that self reflection can be made easier due to

technology. For example, the heated debate of ClassDojo. ClassDojo allows for students and

parents to see how they themselves, or their child has behaved in school in school that day. What

Turkle says about apps for self-reflection really struck me, Apps can give you a number;only

people can provide a narrative. (2015, p. 81). While it is great for parents to see if their child

had a good or bad day through their phone, if they dont get the narrative from a teacher what

good are the numbers? Fortunately ClassDojo does have a messaging component where parents

and teachers can communicate through text, however, Turkles narrative talks a lot about the

importance of face to face conversation.

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Chair Two: Relationships - Family, Friendship, Romance

It is no secret that technology impacts every type of relationships both positively and

negatively. Technology is a great way to keep in touch with family and friends that live far away,

or you are not able to see often. It is also a great way for parents and children to communicate

when they are not home. Its nice for a parent to be able to check in with their child by sending a

text.

In Turkles narrative she talks about how technology is taking away from relationships.

Turkle interviews people who say that their phones are a security blanket. It allows for no

awkwardness. If the conversation dies, they have their phones. They can quickly pull it out and

snap a picture and have it on social media in a matter of just a few minutes. In the New York

Times article, Quality Time, Redefined,, a family stated that their phones make it so that they

are together without being "forced" to be together. A family can be in the same room engaged in

different technologies, but can quickly start a conversation with someone in the room about

something on their technology. Although I am guilty of also doing these things, I recognize along

with Turkle that this is a problem. Turkle talks about a family in the Family section of her book

where they will send e-mails about conflict. I understand that it is easier to write out your

thoughts, it is also easy to misinterpret how something is being said. Turkle also mentions a

couple of different children who feel that they have lost their parents to their phones (2015, p

115). One family has a no phones at dinner rule, but the mom doesnt abide by that rule. Parents

are supposed to be role models for children. What are they teaching their children by being so

engaged in their phones, and not having conversations with their children? If parents dont have

conversations with their children it will be difficult for children to learn these conversation skills.

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When being in an environment where you don't know anyone, people (myself included)

will pull out their phones instead of putting themselves out there to talk to people around them.

Our phones are making it so that in-person real time conversation is difficult or even painful. It is

hard to build relationships without conversation. Although technology isn't going anywhere,

either is in-person conversation. We (teachers, parents, etc.) need to teach children how to use

technology for conversation as well as teach how to have real time conversation. Teachers and

parents want our children and students to be successful adults. Most jobs require real time

conversation- starting with an interview. Students need to learn how to speak without editing.

Chair Three: Education and Work

Turkle doesnt spend much time talking about education, but I feel it is one of the most

important components of her narrative. When you think about how children spend most of their

day, its at school. Typically children spend more time at school with their peers and their

teachers than they do at home. Of course it is important to have family conversations as Turkle

mentions, but I feel its just as important for teachers to promote conversations in their

classrooms. Due to technology, education has changed drastically. Students can go to school

online, work with another student from a different class or school, and have their own school

computer. Students have information at their fingertips due to their almost constant access to the

internet. I think its great that students can learn how to conduct research on their own to

questions they have or topics they are interested in, but it can also take away from conversation

and empathy. Turkle talks to a teacher in one of her focus groups who says, They are not

particularly interested in listening to each other. If they have a question, they want the answer.

Quickly! (2015, p. 223). It is important that we still teach our students how to talk about their

opinions with each other and collaborate on topics in order to prepare them for the business

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world. if a student is not college bound, they will still needs conversation skills to get a job and

keep it.

What can we do?

By reading Turkles book my eyes have been opened to the ways technology is hindering

our children and ourselves. It is clear that technology is not going anywhere, in fact, it is going to

continue to progress and be more present. Turkles biggest message is not to get rid of the

technology, but to be able to use technology, and still have conversations thus learning empathy.

As educators it is very important to think about Turkles narrative, especially as our schools

continue to get more technological. I have mentioned my schools project based learning

philosophy in many discussions in this class. It wasnt until this class that I really understood

how much project based learning benefited my students. Will my students use technology while

doing a project? Absolutely. However, part of project based learning is collaborating with a team,

or collaborating with others to seek ideas and answers. Students need to express their ideas with

others and be able to accept feedback from peers and adults. What we should not do, is place our

students in front of a screen because we can. There needs to be purpose behind the technology,

and it should not take the place of conversation within our classrooms.

Resources

Turkle, Sherry. (2015). Reclaiming conversation: the power of talk in a digital age. New York:

Penguin Press.

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