🧠 Book Review: Sherry Turkle: The Kindle Singles Interview by Paula Span
A thoughtful, engaging conversation with one of the most influential voices on technology and human connection—exploring how our digital lives reshape intimacy, identity, and attention.
This 38-page Kindle Single, part of Amazon’s interview series, features journalist Paula Span in dialogue with Sherry Turkle, the MIT psychologist and author of Alone Together and Reclaiming Conversation. With a solid Goodreads rating of 3.90/5, the interview is praised for its clarity, relevance, and Turkle’s candid reflections on the emotional costs of our tech-saturated world.
🧠 Core Themes
Turkle’s work centers on the psychological and social impact of technology, especially how smartphones, social media, and AI affect:
- Human relationships: She warns that we’re “expecting more from technology and less from each other.”
- Conversation and empathy: Face-to-face dialogue is being replaced by curated digital exchanges.
- Identity and solitude: Constant connectivity erodes our ability to be alone and reflect.
- Parenting and education: She critiques tech in early childhood, like baby bouncers with iPad slots, and bans devices in her own classroom.
The interview also touches on lighter moments—like why Turkle isn’t her daughter’s Facebook friend—and her thoughts on phenomena like Pokémon Go, which she sees as both playful and problematic.
💬 Why Readers Appreciate It
- Candid and personal: Turkle shares not just theories, but her own parenting choices and teaching philosophy.
- Timely insights: The interview remains relevant in an era of digital overload and AI acceleration.
- Accessible format: It’s a quick read that distills complex ideas into digestible reflections.
- Balanced tone: Span’s questions are respectful but probing, allowing Turkle’s ideas to shine.
⚠️ Critiques
- Some readers felt the interview was too brief, wishing for deeper dives into Turkle’s research.
- It’s not a substitute for her full-length books, which offer richer context and case studies.
- A few reviews noted that the tone, while engaging, leans toward summary rather than debate.
📣 Reviewer Highlights
“Turkle has taken an increasingly dark view of technology’s impact on human relationships… but she believes we can change that dynamic.” — Amazon listing
“A psychologist with psychoanalytic training, she’s spent decades at MIT teaching, writing, and TED talking about the human dimensions of our digital culture.” — Goodreads summary
🏁 Final Verdict
Sherry Turkle: The Kindle Singles Interview is a compelling, bite-sized introduction to one of the most important critics of digital culture. If you’re curious about how technology affects our emotional lives—and want a preview of Turkle’s larger body of work—this interview offers a thoughtful and timely entry point.
