Sherry Turkle's Essay 'The Flight From Conversation'

Before arriving at camp, before stepping into the bus, before saying goodbye to the parents, even before loading the luggage, the first thing all Lost Canyon campers must participate in is the dreaded phone collection. Every technological device is turned off and placed in a plastic Ziplock bag, not to be seen again...until they are given back to their owners when the bus is an hour away from home on the return trip from camp, five days later. It is the camp’s way of forcing high school students to interact with each other and have face to face conversations, rather than focusing on their technological devices all week. According to Sherry Turkle, this obsession with technology is a real problem. In her essay “The Flight from Conversation” first published in the New York Times on April 22, 2012, she argues that current technology has hindered society’s ability to communicate with and understand each other. She makes her argument effective by personally connecting to her audience, emotionally charging the problem, and supporting her claim with anecdotal incidents. Sherry
Everyone’s head was down, their thoughts lost to their cell phones and Ipods. It was not until then that the students realized how distracting technology can be from a real, face-to-face conversation. In her essay “The Flight from Conversation”, Sherry Turkle makes the convincing argument that today’s technology has led to an increase in connection, but a decrease in communication and the loss of the ability to converse and relate with other people. Though the addition of facts and statistics would make her argument much more effective, her claim was still clearly presented and well-supported through her connection with her audience, her appeal to the audience’s emotions, and her inclusion of personal incidents she encountered while researching technology’s effects on