I stopped at Starbucks one afternoon before heading in to St Eth. There was a father there with his daughter. It was Norman Rockwell visits the 21st century. The young Dad seemed solid. She was 4-5 years old... as cute as could be. The two were interacting while he was in line for some coffee: a fine father-daughter afternoon out.

Well, he got his cuppa joe and then sat down with his daughter and... whipped out his iPhone, and the dude was gone. Zoned out. He started texting while his cuter-than-cute daughter walked the aisles. We waved at each other a couple of times. But the Dad was zoned out. Not present.

This book is nonfiction, a nerdy enterprise, about technology and its impact on us as human beings. The author is a sociologist/psychologist, (dop) but it's quite good. Relevant technology ranges from robots to cell phones to Facebook and beyond... anything that is part of the tech immersion that society is undergoing.

The book seems to have two separate veins running through it:

1. Turkle's analysis of the impact of technology on future generations and her predictions about this.

2. Turkle's experience as a 50-something in using and adapting to technology in her own life

Of course, her personal stories are a lot more interesting than her predictions. And I'll admit, I definitely empathized with her stories:

+ She pines for the voice quality of a land-line phone when she's talking on the crappy cell phone.

+ One of the author's most-valued possessions is the collection of letters her mother wrote her in college. She compares that to what happens now: texting, maybe Skype.

+ She visits Paris with her teenage daughter, recalling her own exploration of a new city/country and how exotic is was when she was a girl. Her daughter, however, remains connected to friends and the net via her cellphone and Facebook and all.

There's really a lot packed in the book, more than I can comment on here. It's substantial. She describes experiments introducing children to robot pets or babies that are really interesting. Young people rarely call each other these days, preferring texting or Facebook. The result is a loss of spontaneity, the "stress" of interactive, live human communication. There are dozens more interesting points in the book.

QOTD
"We enjoy continual connection but rarely have each other's full attention."
- Sherry Turkle

I agree with one of Turkle's conclusions: control your tech rather than it controlling you. Make a conscious decision about your level of connectivity. I have already started making some of these "control" changes.

Teeny-boppers and 20-somethings have grown up with "the tether" or constant connectivity. Obviously, we oldies did not grow up with this. I'm going to decide when and where I connect, and it won't connect. I don't want "zoning out" to be a default condition, like the young Dad at Starbucks with his daughter.

So, if you call or text me, I'll get back to you sooner or later, eh. Maybe I'll actually call you. Yikes! But at least you will have my full attention. Huzzah!

Good book!