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Summary Of The Flight From Conversation

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In today’s generation, digital technology plays a huge role in the majority of people’s lives to the point that it has become a kind of addiction. People are so glued to their cell phones that young people do not know how to start a conversation in person or successfully communicate face-to-face. Technology has negatively changed the way people communicate with others which is a source of concerns for Sherry Turkle. In her essay, “The Flight from Conversation,” Turkle argues how digital devices and the virtual world have negatively affected the communication between people. She believes that conversations that are face to face are much more meaningful because they cannot be edited or change what you are going to say. Once one thing is said in a face to face conversation, one cannot change their response like in a text message. Digital technology lets people escape from feeling alone to the point where when they are alone, it is a strange and lonely feeling for them. Turkle believes that people do not want to be alone because they are afraid of such feelings of loneliness that the experience of solitude entails. This contrasts with Jane Goodall, who describes her experience of solitude in the forest in her essay, “In the Forests of Gombe.” For Goodall, being alone had helped her cope and find comfort after the death of her second husband. Goodall goes to the same forest she has been to many times as a scientist to study the chimpanzees, but this time she goes to be alone and find comfort by connecting to the natural world. Being around nature helped her to enjoy having alone time to herself and being solitary where she experienced quiet moments realizing that she did not feel lonely at all. Technology can be a form of escape from solitude and self reflection, thereby keeping people from having a sense of oneself or identity. The identity that one can learn from by finding out who one truly is and having a real, meaningful face to face conversation with one another. Because technology can consume people’s time on social media, being solitary seems strange for them and individuals have the constant urge to communicate with their cell phones. Many people aren’t able to know what it feels like to actually be

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