Alone Together

Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other

By: Sherry Turkle

Narrated by: Laural Merlington

Length: 14 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

Consider Facebook - it's human contact, only easier to engage with and easier to avoid. Developing technology promises closeness. Sometimes it delivers, but much of our modern life leaves us less connected with people and more connected to simulations of them.

In Alone Together, MIT technology and society professor Sherry Turkle explores the power of our new tools and toys to dramatically alter our social lives. It's a nuanced exploration of what we are looking for - and sacrificing - in a world of electronic companions and social-networking tools, and an argument that, despite the hand-waving of today's self-described prophets of the future, it will be the next generation who will chart the path between isolation and connectivity.

©2011 Sherry Turkle (P)2011 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Turkle's prescient book makes a strong case that what was meant to be a way to facilitate communications has pushed people closer to their machines and further away from each other." ( Publishers Weekly)

EXCELLENT!

I would recommend this book to anyone who plans on living with computers and their progeny. (That's just about anyone breathing) ESPECIALLY parents of young children and those planning new families. One of the most interesting parts of the book is the effects of technology and high tech toys on children. Another fascinating subject is the effects of Facebook, other social networking sites, and mobile computing devises on teens. This was one of the most informative and interesting books I've read so far this year, (I read 3 or 4 books a week) A very good narrator who kept the story going. Crisp and insightful! Well done, 5 stars!

Important work, but far too long

Sherry Turkle cites in great detail several case studies she's done with people interacting with robots, toys, and social media and then gives her own commentary. For example, while the tech industry is asking "How can we take care of our elderly with robots?", Turkle stubbornly pushes the questions "Should we be doing this? What qualities do human interaction give that can't be replaced by a robot? Are we teaching the robots how to care for the elderly? Or are we teaching people to prefer the care of robots? What is the trade off when you replace a human care-giver with a robot?"

I don't agree with everything Turkle argues, but I still found it insightful. She has gotten a lot of praise AND criticism for this book, and has proven there is a price for raising the question of morality and ethics in tech design. While I understand the objections, I think her findings are important, and should be standard reading for anyone work in the tech field.

After all, shouldn't ALL tech designers approach their work with a conscience?

The "bad" of the book is this: She goes into FAR TOO MUCH explanation to be considered a casual read, and FAR TOO MUCH commentary to be considered an academic work. She really could have made the same point in 4 hours – not 14. This is the first time I'd ever recommend an abridged version (if one exists).

Insightful though dated

I’ve been a fan of Sherry Turkle’s work for many years now. This book is an excellent summation of some of her research and the 2000s. Listening to it in 2019, one sees how quickly technology changes. At this point, kids were still enamored with Facebook… Nowadays, Facebook is for the old people :-) but I think her insights are still very very relevant. It is a bit chilling to consider how far, how dehumanized and depersonalized we have become in our relationships with one another, as our interaction becomes more and more mediated by technology. Since the writing of her book, things have increased even more… Comment flaming , emojis etc ... folks like Jaron Lanier has since come out against social media ... we continue down the slippery slope of depersonalization as we hide behind technologies. Yet, we long for personal relationships in contact, to hold things in our hands that are real, and not just digital facsimiles. I am part of this analog revolution I suppose… Even as I listen to the book in my car streaming through Audible, and dictate these comments on my phone. Lord help us to not let technology over power our humanity.

Sherry is an oracle and we are fortunate.

To read this ten years latter and to hear Sherry insight then is chilling. This is a must read.

Definitely worth listening to....

📚 📚 📚
·Currents of Death: Power Lines, Computer Terminals, and the Attempt to Cover Up Their Threat to Your Health - Paul Brodeur

·Glow Kids: How Screen Addiction Is Hijacking Our Kids - and How to Break the Trance - Nicholas Kardaras

·The Invisible Rainbow: A History of Electricity and Life - Arthur Firstenberg

·Faucian Bargain: The Most Powerful and Dangerous Bureaucrat in American History - Steve Deace & Todd Erzen

·Dirty Electricity: Electrification and the Diseases of Civilization - Samuel Milham, MD, MPH

·Zapped: Why Your Cell Phone Shouldn't Be Your Alarm Clock & 1,268 Ways to Outsmart the Hazards of Electronic Pollution - Anne Louise Gittleman

·Are Wireless Devices Safe? - Jeanice Barcelo

·The Spinning Magnet: The Force That Created the Modern World – and Could Destroy It by Alanna Mitchell

·Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier

·Crystallizing Public Opinion by Edward Bernays

·The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind by Gustave Le Bon

·About behaviorism by B. F. Skinner

·The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff

·The Dangers of 5G by Claudia Drake

·Radiation Nation: The Fallout of Modern Technology by Daniel T. DeBaun and Ryan P. DeBaun

·Cancer and EMF Radiation: How to Protect Yourself from the Silent Carcinogen of Electropollution by Brandon LaGreca

·Disconnect: The Truth about Mobile-phone Radiation, what the Industry Has Done to Hide It, and how to Protect Your Family by Devra Davis

·Hidden Dangers 5G: How Governments, Telecom and Electric Power Utilities Suppress the Truth about the Known Hazards of Electro-magnetic Field Radiation by Jerry G. Flynn

·EMF*D: 5G, Wi-Fi & Cell Phones: Hidden Harms and How to Protect Yourself by Joseph Mercola

·Death by 5G: An Advanced Guide to Population Reduction Techniques by Louise Steele

·Earthing: The Most Important Health Discovery Ever? By Clinton Ober, Martin Zucker, and Stephen Sinatra

This Book is 12 Years Old

And it shows. The technology discussed dates back 10 years prior to that.
Halfway through the much too long analysis of Furbies, I had to skip ahead. I’m sure at the time this was all very good knowledge, thought-provoking, even. Now, in the age of AI and more, it seems kind of cringe-worthy. It isn’t until halfway through the book where mobile devices are even mentioned. Even there, the prevalence of blackberries can be distracting. Do younger people even know what that is?
Still some of this is prescient, hinting at a future containing chatGPT, not to mention the soul-crushing loneliness involved in being part of an attention-starved world where the goal is never attained.
Merlington does a fine job with the material and at times seems a fitting voice for some of the older tech.
I recommend this book despite all that, because while the technology has moved way beyond MyLifeBits and blackberries, the themes have not changed much.

Progression of Society of Robots and apps.

Enjoyable because even though it was written early in 20th Century and relates to present day in quite an accurate way. You can see the progress we have made since then and we are even more dependent on device and apps then we have been before. We are becoming more so as more and more virtual toolkits are being integrated every day and even the smartphone which are ever more intelligent are becoming a huge part of day to day life.

corrective to tech boosterism!

get this to learn and understand techo-optimists' delusions.

all her stuff is great! and paired with nicholas carr's work is fantastic!

Too much…

I made it to the end, but I’d considered ending early if I didn’t get to some information about smartphones. This book is a little too old to have sufficient data on the topic, and it gives way more detail than the average academic person wants to know about robots, dolls, and antiquated social media sites.

Reader's Voice Grates

I am a fan of the topic, but I have a hard time listening to this book given the reader's voice, tone, and prosody. Since she is reading a book that is in first person, I'm connecting the author with the reader... and drawing a bad impression of the author (unfortunately). I'm fighting it, but it is so automatic.