Whanganui Chronicle
  • Whanganui Chronicle home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Taranaki
  • National Park
  • Whakapapa
  • Ohakune
  • Raetihi
  • Taihape
  • Marton
  • Feilding
  • Palmerston North

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • New Plymouth
  • Whanganui
  • Palmertson North
  • Levin

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Whanganui Chronicle

Terry Sarten: Conversation dying a death at hands of digital dialogue

By Terry Sarten
Columnist·Whanganui Chronicle·
15 Jul, 2017 06:02 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Professor Sherry Turkle suggests technology has resulted in a loss of conversational skills.PHOTO/PETER URBAN

Professor Sherry Turkle suggests technology has resulted in a loss of conversational skills.PHOTO/PETER URBAN

AS I have mentioned in recent columns, people and society as a whole appear to be ceding moral and ethical decision making to the corporate realm of Facebook, Google and other web-based networks.

The vacant space which was once filled by active conversations in families, among friends, neighbourhoods and local communities has been taken over by cybernauts, floating untethered in the internet ether.

Sometimes they're real, sometimes they're fake, sometimes they're giving, sometimes they take. The difficulty is working out what to believe and how to respond.

Meanwhile at mission control they fiddle with the dials and the settings trying to establish some kind of rules of engagement to halt the waves of hate, trolling and vicious attacks on any opinion that does not fit the world view of some lone sniper, camouflaged by anonymity.

Holding an opinion means potentially holding your own in a brutal, verbal assault conducted in a manner that most people would find offensive if it was said to their face.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

There is a clanging dissonance between the catchcry of corporate internet providers that they are "creating new ways for people to connect" and the way these same services are actually disconnecting us all by replacing real conversations with ersatz digital dialogue.

Sherry Turkle, a professor of social studies at MIT discusses this change in social behaviour in Reclaiming Conversation - The Power of Talk in a Digital Age.

Her book makes a strong case for a loss of conversation skills among those born into the era of the cellphone and iPad.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

She describes encountering situations in which these tech natives, living in a world with open borders, acknowledge their own lack of skills in handling conversations. They find it hard to talk in a meaningful way to others around them, especially having the difficult conversations - the ones that forge, strengthen or end relationships between colleagues, friends or family.

These are now done via text or online formats as this makes it easier to manage because there is no need to look the other person in the eye, facing the possibility of challenge.

The author extends this shift to using technology for dialogue and the consequent diminishing skills for conversation to a potential loss of empathy.

Research suggest this loss comes about as people do not engage in conversations of depth, keeping to light and easy matters if there is a phone present because it may require attention at any time - even when the phone is in silent mode. This straitjacket effect on conversations leaves less room for understanding and empathy.

Professor Turkle describes the way new social norms have emerged to meet the continual "need" to check your phone with a minimum of guilt.

Students named this the "rule of three". If eating out with a group of friends, the rule is that if at least three people are not looking down at their phones then it is okay for you to check your phone and not feel so bad.

This odd mix of guilt and mannered manners indicates we have reached a new horizon where technology and human skills have sailed off the edge into an unknown part of the map.

It is becoming ever more important that we do not let technology fill the spaces that were once filled with people holding conversations. If the way we laugh, argue, chat about the weather, talk of birth or death, love and loathing is via machines rather than directly with those around us, then we risk becoming merely digital cyphers.

-Terry Sarten (aka Tel) is a writer, musician and social worker - feedback welcomed: tgs@inspire.net.nz

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Whanganui Chronicle

RSA 'alive and well' despite premises closure

11 Jul 06:00 PM
Whanganui Chronicle

‘Everyone went silent’: Whanganui Youth MP speaks in Parliament

11 Jul 05:00 PM
Opinion

Shelley Loader: How we can all get a share of the apples

11 Jul 05:00 PM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

RSA 'alive and well' despite premises closure

RSA 'alive and well' despite premises closure

11 Jul 06:00 PM

Former members are 'more than welcome' to return, RSA Welfare Trust president says.

‘Everyone went silent’: Whanganui Youth MP speaks in Parliament

‘Everyone went silent’: Whanganui Youth MP speaks in Parliament

11 Jul 05:00 PM
Major Joanna Margaret Paul exhibition opens

Major Joanna Margaret Paul exhibition opens

11 Jul 05:00 PM
Shelley Loader: How we can all get a share of the apples

Shelley Loader: How we can all get a share of the apples

11 Jul 05:00 PM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Whanganui Chronicle e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Whanganui Chronicle
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP