What Are the Disadvantages of Person to Person Conversation?

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In the ampathy diary, i try to link my personal story in growing up in a particular kind of household, iwith empathy denied me. And how, you know, when you create a technological environment in which empathy is going to be denied to a lot of people, ah, you're going to have robots and chatbots not who can't show ampathy at all. I feel that thereis a kind of vicious circle of our incapacity for solitude,. Our incapacity for boredom, our incapacity to stay with people for eight minutesoour incapacity to just b with with people and just kind of take them in, to give them that kind of patience.

Advances in technology have gradually been extending the human self beyond its biological extent, as we augment who we are with a variety of interconnected devices. There are obvious benefits to this — it lets us text our friends, listen to podcasts, and not get lost in strange cities. But as it changes how we interact with other people, it’s important to consider the possible downsides. Sherry Turkle is a psychologist and writer who specializes in the relationship between humans and their technology. She makes the case for not forgetting about empathy, conversation, and even the occasional imperfection in how we present ourselves to the world.

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Sherry Turkle received her Ph.D. in sociology and personality psychology from Harvard University. She is currently Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society at MIT, founding director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self, and a licensed clinical psychologist. Among her awards are a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Rockefeller Humanities Fellowship, the Harvard Centennial Medal, and she was named “Woman of the Year” by Ms. Magazine. Her new book is The Empathy Diaries: A Memoir.

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