Sherry Turkle on the Illusion of Friction-Free Human Relationships
From the Quarantine Tapes Podcast with Paul Holdengraber
Hosted by Paul Holdengräber, The Quarantine Tapes chronicles shifting paradigms in the age of social distancing. Each day, Paul calls a guest for a brief discussion about how they are experiencing the global pandemic.
Today on episode 70 of The Quarantine Tapes, Paul Holdengräber and Sherry Turkle discuss the difference between loneliness and solitude, the link between democracy, privacy, and intimacy, and the illusion of friction-free human relationships.
From the interview:
Sherry Turkle: Privacy, intimacy, and democracy are not separate things. When we lose the capacity for privacy, we’re losing democracy and intimacy together and at the same time.
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To listen to the rest of the episode, as well as the whole archive of The Quarantine Tapes, subscribe and listen on iTunes or wherever else you find your favorite podcasts.
Sherry Turkle of MIT is a New York Times bestselling author whose work focuses on evolving relationships in digital culture. Her most recent books are Reclaiming Conversation (2015) and Alone Together (2011). Both investigate how we are tempted to hide behind our screens to feel less vulnerable. Now, during the experience of COVID-19, we find ourselves at a point of inflection, confronted with how much we lose when we give up the full embrace of the human. She is just completing a new book, The Empathy Diaries: A Memoir, to be published Spring 2021.
