Reclaiming Conversation

The Power of Talk in a Digital Age

By: Sherry Turkle

Narrated by: Kirsten Potter

The 10th anniversary edition, with a new preface by the author

“A persuasive and intimate book . . . showing how, phones in hand, we turn away from our children, friends, and coworkers, even from ourselves.” —Carlos Lozada, The Washington Post

“[Turkle] presents a powerful case that a new communication revolution is degrading the quality of human relationships.” —The New York Review of Books

“Neil Postman was the greatest media analyst of the late 20th century . . . I often wish that Postman was here with us today as the pace of change and concerns about harms increase rapidly. But we do have a Neil Postman, and her name is Sherry Turkle . . . Reclaiming Conversation was a landmark work of media scholarship . . . Sherry gives us the most powerful summation of how smartphones and social media, these powerful technologies of connection, have damaged close human relationships. She does it in four words: 'We are forever elsewhere.'” —Jonathan Haidt, bestselling author of The Anxious Generation

A prescient bestseller a decade ago, and essential today—with new insight into the threats of generative AI.

Sherry Turkle, long an enthusiast for the promise of digital technology, now investigates its troubling consequence: at work, at home, in politics, and in love, we have sacrificed conversation for mere connection. At the dinner table, children compete with phones for their parents’ attention. At work, we retreat to our screens and home offices, forgoing the water-cooler conversation that once made us more productive and engaged. Online, we post opinions that our friends will agree with, avoiding the real conflicts and solutions of the public square. When we turn to our devices instead of to one another, the cost is our own humanity.

But there is good news: conversation cures. Face-to-face dialogue builds empathy, friendship, and creativity; it’s the cornerstone of democracy and good for the bottom line. Drawing on five years of research and interviews in homes, schools, and the workplace, Turkle makes the paradigm-shifting case for conversation.

Awesome Book!.. I really enjoyed this Audiobook!.

Will change the way look at your phone & hopefully change the way you are most likely letting your phone decrease your ability to communicate effectively in our relationships

Very powerful!

It’s time to awake up to the sadness of missed communication and the loss of human interactions.

Very important book!

Well researched and well written. This book is so important for everyone to read/listen to.

Obvious and redundant

While I typically enjoy writings such as these, I found this book to be incredibly obvious and horribly redundant chapter to chapter. The message and information contained is both important and practical, but was drawn out to 50+ chapters in what could have just as easily been fully elucidated in more concise form.

Required reading, audio should have chapters

This book is very important to read, as it addresses a critical issue in our lives and relationships.

My only complaint is that the audio lacks chapter markers or headings in the recording. So I could never know where I was in the structure of the book. Good luck searching later for a key quote!