When the coronavirus pandemic drove life online
On NBC News, MIT Professor Sherry Turkle discusses how the pandemic is inspiring people to use the internet in new and creative ways to connect.
"Turkle, who wrote Alone Together, which details how technology can connect but also isolate people, said the move online could end up changing what it means to be online."
Research and Perspectives for the Pandemic
Main Page | Daily Life
EXCERPT | MARCH 28, 2020
"Sherry Turkle, a professor of the social studies of science and technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said she's been struck by the creativity and thoughtfulness with which people are putting themselves online during the outbreak.
"She pointed to the cello player Yo Yo Ma and the actor Patrick Stewart, who have broadcast themselves practicing their crafts.
"'Every group I'm in is trying to reinvent itself in an online form,' she said. 'You see people trying to find something of themselves that they can use as the medium to express themselves.'
"Turkle, who wrote Alone Together, which details how technology can connect but also isolate people, said the move online could end up changing what it means to be online.
"'Will people say, "You know, I don't want to use this screen for nonsense anymore"?' she said. 'Will we reach for the best of us? Maybe that will be the legacy.'"
Suggested Links
Sherry Turkle's website
MIT Program in Science, Technology and Society