Flight From Conversation vs. The Crisis of Significance

Sherry Turkle’s The Flight From Conversation examines the dangers of sacrificing conversation for online connection. I believe Turkle, a Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at MIT, highlights some strong points. I like how she explains the notion that we have become “alone together.” The idea that SOME people spend too much time on their devices while in the same space as others. Even as a 32 year old, I am bothered when I am with friends and family and their phones distract conversation. I think it is important to unplug as much as possible when around others. She says, “Human relationships are rich; they’re messy and demanding. We have learned the habit of cleaning them up with technology.” I believe human relationships are the driving force of life and happiness, and technology helps us stay connected with these people. She goes on that we sacrifice in-person conversations for superficial, on-line communication without the authenticity of tone and point of view. Turkle makes it seem as if relationships have been destroyed or no longer exist, and that phone messages and conversations are meaningless.

I do understand her perspective, that technology can interfere with in-person communication skills. However, I feel she sort of rambles with blanket statements about young people's poor conversation skills and lack of eye contact. She seems annoyed and judgemental about people wearing pilot-sized earphones. I have meaningful conversations with teenagers everyday, whether they have an earpod in or not. I found this to be a bit of a negative approach, as she ignores strengths that technology and connecting with the world provides. I think online conversations serve an invaluable purpose of staying connected with the world. I believe it is unfair to say that younger people are incapable of in-person conversation, these online connections are meaningless, and people are always ignoring one another. I communicate weekly with friends in Costa Rica, but when we are together we rarely are on our phones, just enjoying the company of one another. Why would I want to lose touch with these people, as I am only able to now see them a week or so a year. This article was written in 2012, and I hope she has recognized that technology is only advancing, and hopefully she will find value in the connectivity of the internet and not lose hope in face to face conversations.

Luckily, we have Michael Wesch...

 

In Anti-Teaching: Confronting The Crisis of Significance, Michael Wesch approaches the problem with education in the digital age we live in - students feel disengaged and unimportant during school. Written in 2010, Wesch recognized that textbooks and lectures had/have become an obsolete approach to teaching and learning that makes students feel insignificant. Being the educator he is, Wesch provides solutions. 

“Good questions are the driving force of critical and creative thinking and therefore one of the best indicators of significant learning. Good questions are those that force students to challenge their taken-for-granted assumptions and see their own underlying biases. Oftentimes the answer to a good question is irrelevant – the question is an insight in itself. The only answer to the best questions is another good question. And so the best questions send students on rich and meaningful lifelong quests, question after question after question. Unfortunately, such great questions are rarely asked by students in an education system facing a crisis of significance. Much more common are administrative questions.”

He explains that these questions are rarely asked because of the structure of the outdated educational system in which students sit in rows and listen as the teacher (authoritative figure) teaches. There is a lack of interaction and collaboration that drives meaningful questions. Students are disengaged, feel unimportant, and as a result do not formulate meaningful questions because they feel disconnected from the world. His teaching solution is “World Simulation.” To engage, he has created a project in which students work together to discover how the world works by examining the last 500 years. He finds success in putting himself in the position of discovery and joining students on the journey of learning, rather than being the “all-knowing” professor. I found a strong connection here to Sugata Mitra’s Build a School in the Cloud. He explains that the best learning is done when the teacher provides big questions and steps back and allows students to do their own research and learning. 

I very much enjoyed Michael Wesch’s article. He is critical of an outdated educational approach and provides interesting insight to his solution. Although Sherry Turkle made some strong points, I believe that she needs to embrace technology and not be so condemning of technology and despairing of people and their relationships.