Sherry
Turkle

Sociologist, psychologist

Sherry writes about: Technology

Sherry Turkle is the Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society at MIT, and the founding director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self. She writes on the “subjective side” of people’s relationships with technology, especially computers, and is an expert on culture and therapy, mobile technology, social networking, and sociable robotics.

Her newest book, The Empathy Diaries: A Memoir, forthcoming in 2021, ties together her personal story with her groundbreaking research on technology, empathy, and ethics. Her previous book, the 2015 New York Times bestseller Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age, investigates how a flight from conversation undermines our relationships, creativity, and productivity. Turkle is also the author of four other books about evolving relationships in digital culture as well as the editor of several collections on how we use objects to think with, particularly in the development of ideas about science.

Profiles of Turkle and her work have appeared in such publications as The New York Times, Scientific American, and Wired. She is a featured media commentator on the social and psychological effects of technology for CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, the BBC, and NPR, including appearances on such programs as Nightline, The Today Show, Good Morning America, Frontline, Dateline, 20/20, and The Colbert Report. She has been named “Woman of the Year” by Ms. Magazine and among the “40 under 40” who are changing the nation by Esquire. She is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Rockefeller Humanities Fellowship, the Harvard Centennial Medal, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

For the failing connections of our digital age, conversation is the talking cure.

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