Sherry Turkle

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Sherry Turkle bigraphy, stories - American sociologist

Sherry Turkle : biography

1948 –

Sherry Turkle is the Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She obtained a BA in Social Studies and later a Ph.D. in Sociology and Personality Psychology at Harvard University. She now focuses her research on psychoanalysis and human-technology interaction. She has written several books focusing on the psychology of human relationships with technology, especially in the realm of how people relate to computational objects.

In The Second Self, originally published in 1984, Turkle writes about how computers are not tools as much as they are a part of our social and psychological lives. “‘Technology,’ she writes, ‘catalyzes changes not only in what we do but in how we think.’” http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=10515 She goes on using Jean Piaget’s psychology discourse to discuss how children learn about computers and how this affects their minds. The Second Self was received well by critics and was praised for being “a very thorough and ambitious study.” http://metapsychology.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=book&id=3240

In Life on the Screen, Turkle discusses how emerging technology, specifically computers, affect the way we think and see ourselves as humans. She presents to us the different ways in which computers affect us, and how it has led us to the now prevalent use of "cyberspace." Turkle suggests that assuming different personal identities in a MUD (i.e. computer fantasy game) may be therapeutic. She also considers the problems that arise when using MUDs. Turkle discusses what she calls women’s "non-linear" approach to the technology, calling it "soft mastery" and "bricolage" (as opposed to the "hard mastery" of linear, abstract thinking and computer programming). She discusses problems that arise when children pose as adults online.°

Turkle also explores the psychological and societal impact of such "relational artifacts" as sociable robots, and how these and other technologies are changing attitudes about human life and living things generally. One result may be a devaluation of authentic experience in a relationship.

Turkle was formerly married to Seymour Papert, and together they wrote the influential paper "Epistemological Pluralism and the Revaluation of the Concrete."

Professor Turkle has written numerous articles on psychoanalysis and culture and on the "subjective side" of people’s relationships with technology, especially computers. She is engaged in active study of robots, digital pets, and simulated creatures, particularly those designed for children and the elderly as well as in a study of mobile cellular technologies. Profiles of Professor Turkle have appeared in such publications as The New York Times, Scientific American, and Wired Magazine. She is a featured media commentator on the effects of technology for CNN, NBC, ABC, and NPR, including appearances on such programs as Nightline and 20/20.

Early life

Sherry Turkle was born on June 18, 1948. A Brooklyn native, Turkle attended Abraham Lincoln High School and graduated as a valedictorian in 1965. Afterwards, she attended Radcliffe College. Turkle visited France in the late 1960s and had a glimpse of France’s era of social and intellectual unrest. She later returned to the United States in the 1970s. After receiving her Bachelors in Social Studies from Radcliffe College, she received her Masters in Sociology at Harvard University in 1973. She would then go on to earn her Doctorate in Sociology and Personality Psychology from Harvard in 1976, "writing about the relationship between Freudian thought and the modern French revolutionary movements." Henderson 2009, p. 482.

The Second Self

In the Second Self, Turkle defines the computer as more than just a tool, but part of our everyday personal and psychological lives. She looks at how the computer affects the way we look at ourselves and our relationships with others, claiming that technology defines the way we think and act. Turkle’s book allows us to view and reevaluate our own relationships with technology.