Sherry Turkle, MIT professor and author of the new book "Alone Together," told Stephen Colbert "we have to put technology in its place" on "The Colbert Report" last night.
"What's the possible harm?" asked Colbert. "Let's say I'm texting and tweeting, 'Pass the salt, dear.' What's the possible harm of that?"
"Well because there are times, there are places, we need to give each other our full attention," Turkle said.
"Says you! Why? Why do we need to give each other our full attention?"
The author defended her book to a particularly aggressive Colbert by citing studies showing the impact on children who have grown up with parents who favor technology over their children, as well as the negative result of communicating solely by email. The author claims that the quality of interaction between people has deteriorated because of the constant reliance on text messages, emails and other digital broadcasts of the self.
So, what do you think? Has technology alienated us from one another?
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