A groundbreaking book by one of the most important thinkers of our time shows how technology is warping our social lives and our inner ones Technology has become the architect of our intimacies. Online, we fall prey to the illusion of companionship, gathering thousands of Twitter and Facebook friends, and confusing tweets and wall posts with authentic communication. But this relentless connection leads to a deep solitude. MIT professor Sherry Turkle argues that as technology ramps up, our emotional lives ramp down. Based on hundreds of interviews and with a new introduction taking us to the present day, Alone Together describes changing, unsettling relationships between friends, lovers, and families.
Consider Facebook - it's human contact, only easier to engage with and easier to avoid. Developing technology promises closeness. Sometimes it delivers, but much of our modern life leaves us less connected with people and more connected to simulations of them. In Alone Together, MIT technology and society professor Sherry Turkle explores the power of our new tools and toys to dramatically alter our social lives. It's a nuanced exploration of what we are looking for - and sacrificing - in a world of electronic companions and social networking tools, and an argument that, despite the hand-waving of today's self-described prophets of the future, it will be the next generation who will chart the path between isolation and connectivity.
A groundbreaking book by one of the most important thinkers of our time shows how technology is warping our social lives and our inner ones Technology has become the architect of our intimacies. Online, we fall prey to the illusion of companionship, gathering thousands of Twitter and Facebook friends, and confusing tweets and wall posts with authentic communication. But this relentless connection leads to a deep solitude. MIT professor Sherry Turkle argues that as technology ramps up, our emotional lives ramp down. Based on hundreds of interviews and with a new introduction taking us to the present day, Alone Together describes changing, unsettling relationships between friends, lovers, and families.
You attend church on Sunday while your husband golfs. You want to join a weekly small faith-sharing group, but your wife wants you to spend time with her. You want to talk about a great spiritual book youve read, but you cannot engage your spouse in discussion. During a family crisis, you want to pray with your spouse, but your spouse doesnt know how to pray. Whats a spouse to do?
Based on two studies of marital quality in America twenty years apart, Alone Together shows that while the divorce rate has leveled off, spouses are spending less time together. The authors argue that marriage is an adaptable institution, and in accommodating the changes that have occurred in society, it has become a less cohesive, yet less confining arrangement.
Bank Street College of Education Best Book of the Year This simple and endearing story about friends learning to understand each other's differences is filled with author/illustrator Suzanne Bloom's gentle humor and trademark pastel illustrations. Sometimes Bear likes quiet time by himself. But his friend Fox has a very different idea of what "quiet" means. Can Bear's quiet aloneness and Fox's noisy togetherness ever result in a satisfying compromise? "This title offers a winning combination of earnestness and flippancy, sweetness, and saltiness. Readers will gain insight into the rewards of contemplation and quiet. The book will inspire rich discussions about what it means to be alone and together and what the experience of "alone togetherness" might mean for friends." —School Library Journal
Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. Today, it’s easier than ever to connect with another person. Thanks to social media apps like Facebook, we have opened ourselves up to become available at all hours of the day. While this makes people stay connected virtually, our modern lives are making us less connected as we no longer connect with physical people but simulations of them. And not only is technology providing us with an endless network of people, but it is also equipping us with robots who can do more than just take on mindless or dangerous tasks. Now, robots are providing humans with care and demanding that we care for them. In Alone Together, author Sherry Turkle explores the power of these new technologies and shares both sides of today’s digital culture. As you read, you’ll learn how robots can be therapeutic for the elderly, why being constantly connected leads to stress, and why people use virtual avatars to cope with the stresses of life. Do you want more free book summaries like this? Download our app for free at https://www.QuickRead.com/App and get access to hundreds of free book and audiobook summaries. DISCLAIMER: This book summary is meant as a preview and not a replacement for the original work. If you like this summary please consider purchasing the original book to get the full experience as the original author intended it to be. If you are the original author of any book on QuickRead and want us to remove it, please contact us at [email protected].
Theodora "Teddy" Getty Gaston—now one hundred years old—reveals the glamorous yet painful story of her marriage to J. Paul Getty. As formidable as Getty was, his wife was equally strong-minded and flamboyant, and their clutches and clashes threw off sparks. She knew the vulnerable side of Getty—he underwent painful plastic surgery and suffered terrible phobias—that few, if any, saw. A vivid love story, Alone Together is also a fascinating glimpse into the twentieth century from the vantage point of one of its most remarkable couples. This is how the other half lived—dinner dances, satin gowns, beach houses, hotel suites, first-class cabins on the Queen Mary. Teddy's extra-ordinary life story moves from the glittering nightclubs of 1930s New York City to Mussolini's Italy, where she was imprisoned by the fascist regime, to California in the golden postwar years, where Paul and Teddy socialized with movie stars and the elite. But life with one of the world's richest men wasn't all glitz and glamour. Though terrifically charismatic in person, Getty grew more miserly as his wealth increased. Worse, he often left Teddy and their son, Timothy, behind for years at a time while he built planes for the war effort in the 1940s or brokered oil deals—he was the first American to lease mineral rights in Saudi Arabia, which made him, at his death, the richest man in the world. Even when Timothy was diagnosed with a brain tumor, Getty complained about medical bills and failed to return to the United States to support his wife and son. When Timothy died at age twelve, the marriage was already falling apart. Teddy's unrelenting spirit, her valiant friendship, and her winning lack of vanity transform what could have been a sob story into a nuanced portrait of a brilliant but stubbornly difficult man and the family he loved but left behind, as well as an enchanting view into a bygone era. This was a life lived from the heart.
