Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other
Sherry Turkle's 2011 book is her most widely cited argument that constant connectivity can leave people feeling more isolated, not less. Drawing on hundreds of interviews with children, teenagers, and adults, she describes kids forming attachments to sociable robots and toys and, at times, becoming genuinely unsure whether a machine that talks back 'cares' about them — a confusion she treats as worth taking seriously rather than dismissing as childish. She also describes teenagers who say texting feels safer than talking on the phone, and who report anxiety about being unreachable or about a conversation that can't be edited before sending. Turkle frames these as warning signs that always-available technology is associated with young people practicing less face-to-face connection and self-disclosure. TechKids Foundation includes this book as a core secondary-tier source on the social costs of passive, isolating screen use.
Turkle, Sherry. Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. Basic Books, 2011.