Turkle –media scholar, tenured professor at MIT, and author of Alone Together – has spent the last 30 years studying the psychology of our relationship with technology. What she discovered is concerning: our technological universe has led to a flight from conversation where we sacrifice face-to-face exchanges for mere connection.

In Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age, Turkle investigates our need for conversation in all areas of life from politics, business, law, and education to the private spheres of family, friendship, love, learning, and self-discovery.

Today, we often find ways around conversation, tempted by the safety of a text or an email in which we don’t have to look, listen, or reveal ourselves. The necessary act of conversation is endangered: these days, always connected, we see loneliness as a problem that technology should solve. Afraid of being alone, we rely on devices and social media to give us a sense of ourselves. As a result our capacity for empathy and relationships suffers.

Turkle argues that we have come to a better understanding of where our technology can and cannot take us and that the time is right to reclaim conversation. The virtues of person-to-person conversation are timeless, and our most basic technology, talk, responds to our modern challenges. Book signing to follow.