What Would Sherry Turkle Say?


Mobile devices certainly offer the modern-day person a wide range of affordances.  Starting out with the brick phones (Zach Morris style) of the 80s and early-90s, to the unbreakable Nokia where you could really only play snake, to flip phones with the grainy cameras, and finally to the smart phones which we rely on for everything these days.  But are phones changing the way humans communicate?  What about in the classroom, are phones becoming major distractions in the academia setting?  Sherry Turkle would say yes. But she does mention some benefits of mobile devices in social settings. 

Turkle would completely agree that phones are changing the way we communicate. Living in a world where “nearly 95% of Americans have at least one cell phone” (NBC Learn), mobile devices have certainly impacted us, and our daily routines, such as conversations, in a plethora of ways.   Turkle says “Eighty-nine percent of Americans say that during their last social interaction, they took out a phone, and 82 percent that it deteriorated the conversation they were in.”  The issue with that is as humans turn to their phones during these social interactions, they begin to lose the ability to show empathy, compassion, and basic social skills (eye contact, sensing body movements, sensing presence.)  Also, mobile devices facilitate multi-tasking and talk to multiple people at once using text messaging, social media, etc. While that is arguably a good thing, the down side is, face-to-face conversations become more and more rare and less meaningful. 

Regarding the classroom, “the widespread use of these mobile devices in peoples’ everyday lives leads students to expect to be able to use them in class” (Finn & Ledbetter, 2013; Lancaster & Goodboy, 2015).  But, “there is growing evidence that certain types of mobile device behavior in the classroom…are detrimental to learning” (Kuznekoff & Titsworth, 2013; Sana, Weston, & Cepeda, 2013; Wei et al., 2012).  Turkle would agree with these statements, while she focuses a lot in her book on her fear of students lacking empathy, she does mention repeatedly how we have become a society addicted to our phones.  I think of my own classroom setting, sure, we have firewalls in place to block students from using social media, but students are clever with technology, they find ways around those firewalls to play their games or to get on social media. So it becomes a battle of teachers having to constantly monitor students on devices, and many teachers have gotten to the point where mobile devices are banned all together.  Turkle would likely be on board with banning of mobile devices in the classroom to create a zone where students have to communicate and learn social skills.

Not all is bad news regarding mobile devices and effects on conversation, though.  Turkle mentions “many people want to dial down fighting or dealing with difficult emotional issues with a partner or with children by doing it online.”  The benefit to this is people have time to think about thorough responses, and this can alleviate saying those things that you will later end up regretting.

We are living in an amazing time with our vast amounts of technology, and our mobile devices offer so much to make our lives easier. However, there is ample evidence to support that mobile devices and our dependency on mobile devices are hurting our abilities to have conversations with each other.  So much so that “some Los Angeles restaurants have banned the use of mobile devices to ensure customers enjoy both their meal and their company (Forbes, 2013).  “People who had conversations in the absence of mobile devices reported higher levels of empathetic concern, while those conversing in the presence of a mobile device reported lower levels of empathy (Misra et al., 2014). Make some time to get away from your phone and enjoy your surroundings and people around you...it's not too late to reclaim conversation!


Comments

  1. PHD-HairmanJune 28, 2018 at 4:56 PM

    Interesting topic Jared! I teach a career ready class: Cosmetology, and it is imperative that my learners know how to interact with others. In the last five years, I have seen a dramatic drop in my learners social skills. The number one problem in my profession is communication skills, because learners of today have a hard time talking to a generation above them, which is a huge problem, because these are the people who have the expendable money.

    I have also seen a dramatic drop in retaining information, whether it's vocabulary or technical skills, because they think that they can look everything up, so they don't need to learn it. This has created a huge challenge for me because at the end of the two year program, my students take a professional licensing exam of theory and technical. It has been a challenge to help these learners retain the information, and I blame it on technology.

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  2. Betsy GreenJuly 4, 2018 at 6:23 AM

    I have a 23 year old daughter and when she was in high school I was the Mom who had a basket by the front door and collected cell phones as her friend came in the door so that they would communicate more and not be glued to their cell phones all night. I am known as "Momma Green" and when they come over now they still hand me their cell phone for the duration of their visit. It is funny that they like giving up their phone for a short period of time and can focus on their friends and communicate with each other without texting even from the same room. We are definitely losing the social skills and those can not be replaced with technology. People need socialization and children in my classroom have trouble getting along with each other, playing simple games at recess, and are losing focus in their school work. I guess I am old school but in my opinion we need to start taking away some of the screen time and focusing on learning the traits that keep a person strong: helpfulness, accountability, wise choices, kindness, and safety for all. (HAWKS) is our school motto!

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  3. UnknownJuly 5, 2018 at 1:28 PM

    The more I read your blogs, the more I love this book, Jared. I'm planning to get a copy of my own.

    Having just taken a brief road trip with a 14 year old niece, the addictive part of the phones is very clear. She wanted to be on her phone constantly, even through the entire night. When I told her it was important for her health (not just that her aunt was being "mean") that she take the time to relax and sleep, she finally agreed to put the phone face down, out of reach. The number of rings, as her friends continued to try to reach her was unbelievable. No listening to quiet music, the phone had to be turned OFF! My niece told me that these all night conversations are common place. Sleep is relegated to whenever you can't stay awake any more.
    I love your phone basket, Betsy. It seems like more parents need to be taking concrete steps to encourage better phone limits.

    I also agree with the drop in student retention of information. The quick, easy access to anything they want to know means that memory isn't a part of learning any more (at least according to the students)! We're going to need to find ways to address these issues, moving forward in education!

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  4. UnknownJuly 12, 2018 at 7:03 AM

    I really like your post and I agree with what you have written. The part I find the most troubling is the word addiction. This is an extremely serious word that in my mind conjures up the need for rehab and potentially the need to completely stop using it for fear of triggering the addiction or relapse. Do you believe that addiction is the correct word for overuse of phones? I agree that people need to have access to phones, the convenience can not be overstated when there is a emergency and you need to fix a flat tire or have an accident. Is the problem that we've combined to many functions into one device? Smart phones are helpful, useful and practical for many reasons, getting the weather, getting directions, finding coupons at the grocery story etc. But if this is an addiction is awareness enough or does the technology need to change? Liquor stores are on every corner if you are an alcoholic you can choose not to go in the store, Casinos are quite abundant as well as places to buy lotto tickets and gamblers can avoid those places as well but how will a phone addict be able to properly recover? Alcoholics and gamblers believe that will power alone is not sufficient to overcome their addition. If will power will work for phone addicts then perhaps is not an addition but a severe dependency that needs to be addressed. Either way I agree its a problem that is presently getting worse and not better.

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