Sherry Turkle

Argues that social-networking sites, companion robots and other technology are fueling disturbing levels of isolation and are causing humans to mistake digital communication for actual human connection. By the author of Simulations and Its Discontents.

Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other

Alone Together

Lindy

I was so excited to read this book, but unfortunately my expectations were not met. 

The main problem with Alone Together is that it's written by a psychoanalyst trying to be an ethnographer. Turkle does not seem to understand basic ethnographic methods, nor does she cite the relevant (and plentiful) ethnographic literature, and so the text is unsuccessful by that metric. 

The book is divided in two halves: "Part One: The Robotic Movement" and "Part Two: Networked." While I understand why Turkle chose to include discussion of both robots and digital communications/social media, for the most part the two halves are not well integrated.

Part one is worth reading for the "Furby surgical theater" passage alone. It's also worth reading if you are interested in awkward transcripts of people trying to flirt with robots. Additionally, it would make a valuable nonfiction companion to Marge Piercy's He, She and It or PKD's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. I enjoyed this portion of the book. 

However, feel free to skip Part Two. In addition to being poorly argued, it is alarmist in the most boring, played-out way. I do not fundamentally disagree with Turkle's thesis for the section-- that through digital communications we dehumanize ourselves and others-- but I get the sense that Turkle is kind of a fish out of water when it comes to digital lives generally, and so I'm disinclined to trust her as an expert. I mean, if I were to argue the above thesis, I'd probably center it around online dating services (which would also jibe well with the discussion of the 'romantic impulse' in the first half) but Turkle does not even include a mention of them. It also bothers me that nowhere does Turkle seem aware of rituals that are particular to specific digital/online environments and do/compensate for intimacy. Plus, a lot of her conclusions exist to justify her own preferences, like when she argues that calling someone from a landline telephone affords a greater intimacy than videochatting via Skype. lol.

Alone Together Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other

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