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Sherry Turkle

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Live Q&A with Sherry Turkle: How has digital technology changed the kind of communications you have with your friends, family & co-workers?

This Live conversation with TED speaker Sherry Turkle will open on April 12th, 2pm EDT.

How has digital technology changed the kind of communications you have with your friends, family & co-workers?

Topics: social media
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Closing Statement from Sherry Turkle

This has been a wonderful experience for me. I get to see how many people view my talk, but not what they are thinking. So hearing what you are thinking was great! And it sounds like a lot of people are struggling to balance conversation with connection and actually becoming better at sensing the difference. I’m optimistic. And I like it that people are actively thinking about how to create real spaces at home and work to pay more attention to each other, to really listen to each other. Thank you.

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  • Douglas Arnold

    • +3
    Apr 12 2012: I would like to poll the group. I have been on Facebook avidly for more than five years. I have seen a consistent trend that many newbies jump in head first, post enthusiastically, interact and exchange for maybe a year. Then, many start to enter a bell curve of participation -- the novelty wears off, the old friends just aren't that interesting, the games are vapid and repetitive... Most lurk or disappear completely.

    Any others notice this trend? Are there data recognizing this bell curve?

    • Mary M. 100+

      • +1
      Apr 12 2012: Douglas, the same thing happened to me......and to many of my friends........and some on here have also eliminated their FB account all together.

      It's like unwrapping toys at Christmas, and after one or two weeks of playing with it the novelty wears off.

      That's why balance is needed, and that is why common sense is too.

      Ms. Turkle presents a very balanced view of technology.

      I used to have a cell phone.....hardly used it. The cell phone company was getting rich off me....I got rid of it 5 years ago, and haven't missed it.

      Great question. I'm afraid many will not be able to reply due to time.........why don't you open a conversation in the Question section and see how many reply there???

      Be Well
    • thumb

      Jay Vidyarthi 100+

      • +1
      TED Attendee
      Apr 12 2012: While I do agree that less people seem to engage avidly, I'd bet those people still use FB to get in touch with certain people or to share pictures or other practical purposes. I feel like they try all the features and then they decide which ones are useful to them.

      For example, FB is my go-to place for sending a message to acquaintances or old friends who I don't directly communicate with regularly.

    • Alan Rominger

      • 0
      Apr 12 2012: I joined Facebook as somewhere around the 10 millionth user (most of those before me did so before my school was included), so I'm one of the older accounts. You would probably classify me as a lurker. I probably post one thing per week and I am very very picky about those. When you see the news feed populated by the same people every time you check it twice a day, you miss the fact that the majority of your friends use it the same way.

      I've seen people complain about posts getting cricket chirps. But yet, when someone lists a new relationships or a new job, I can see 50-100 likes easily. So people are reading, they are definitely reading. The problem is that you're looking at Facebook as a daily tool. 99% of the value of FB is as a weekly tool. Really, if you think about what you want from an extended network (this is what Facebook is), it's probably monthly updates are more optimal.

      Also, like Jay says, there's a lot of activity through messages, but it's invisible to most of us. The perception that people are abandoning FB comes from unreasonable expectations.

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