Poor Connection: Technology Can't Simulate Empathy

We live in a world driven by technology. We've created a host of smart machines and apps that purport to better connect us to each other. In reality we've built digital walls--screens  ultimately block us from building deeper more empathetic relationships. On this episode of PeakConnection, author, speaker, and MIT professor Dr. Sherry Turkle discusses why Zoom and text will always be performative and never add up to authentic human connection, how technology is assaulting empathy on a global scale, and why we increasingly find ourselves feeling more alone than ever before.

"...what I'm arguing is really for...more time for quiet conversation. Because to end where it all begins for me, within solitude that empathy is born. It's in having a secure sense of who you are that you can then reach out and say, 'Well, who are you?' Not 'I know who you are,' but 'I don't know who you are.' And 'let me just spend a minute finding out who you are,' that's where relationships start." --Dr. Sherry Turkle