Extreme - More Than Words

Father And Daughter - 2000 Academy Award for Animated Short Film Saving the Lost Art of Conversation “I am going to be a little boring,” Sherry Turkle announces as we sit down to tea in the living room of her sprawling Boston townhouse. “And you’re going to be a little boring, too.” Turkle, for the record, is not boring. She is a psychologist and a professor at MIT whose primary academic interest—the relationship between humans and machines—is especially relevant in today’s networked age. Her most recent book, Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other, explores our reliance on devices that can isolate us under the auspices of connection. Published in 2011, it poured 384 pages’ worth of water onto technological optimism at a time when most of the culture preferred to focus on the promise and allure of digital devices. This tech critic, however, is not tech-phobic. As we chat, it becomes clear that Turkle is not just not boring—she’s an exceptionally skilled conversationalist. On Boylston Street, we come across Boston’s Apple Store.