Santos, Trisha Elaine H.

BA1A
“Flight from Conversation”

The Flight from Conversation is a true to life article written by Sherry Turkle on April
21, 2012, and was published by The New York Times. This article tackles how the technology
changed the daily lifestyle of everyone, whether it be a positive or a negative outcome.
Difference between a real time conversation versus the online connection can be clearly analyzed
upon reading.

The main idea of the content is a clear concept of how the technology created a difference
between online communication and face to face interaction. Just like on the first paragraph of the
article which stated, “We have sacrificed conversation for mere connection”, this paragraph
clearly shows that we tend to spend and enjoy the rest of our time surfing all over the internet
instead of having a bond or a conversation with the person right next to us. Conversation is
having a face-to-face exchange of dialogue with a person, while connection is basically a chat or
anything that is technology and internet related that entertains us. According to Woll, M. (2022)
Face to face conversations teaches us to be confident with ourselves, reduces misunderstandings,
boosts engagement, and builds trust1. It also pushes us to show who we really are without the
power of changing it to who we want, just like what we can do on the internet.

According to Wardynski, D. (2019) The need to really engage with other people in
person is being slowly eliminated by technology 2, which is definitely true because social media
gave people a lot more choices to entertain themselves and allow them to engage with thousands
of humans over the screen. Moreover, Conversing on a cellphone might be more convenient
than meeting someone in person, according to McCoy, W.(2022)3. This also supports the idea
stated “being alone together” on the article Flight from Conversation, which means a group of
people has their attention to their devices instead of enjoying the company of each other. One
example of this is a get together, some people are not confident to show themselves after a long
period of time therefore they will just scroll to their phones to avoid the awkwardness and make
themselves comfortable and feel the company through their gadgets.

1
Woll, M. (2022) Entitled Why face-to-face communication matters (even with remote work). Retrieved from
https://www.betterup.com/blog/face-to-face-communication#:~:text=Face%2Dto%2Dface%20communication
%20is%20more%20important%20than%20ever&text=It%20can%20help%20build%20trust,and%20more
%20innovation%20and%20creativity.
2
Wardynski, D. (2019) Entitled What Are the Effects of Technology on Human Interaction? Retrieved from
https://www.brainspire.com/blog/what-are-the-effects-of-technology-on-human-interaction
3
McCoy, W.(2022) Entitled Cellphones & Social SkillsI. Retrieved from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/facetoface-
communication-technology-29705.html
 Flight from Conversation teaches us strategic ways to communicate in real life. The
author wants to imbed in us the importance and opportunities that conversation may provide but
is being taken away by technology. It is true that we expect more from technology and less from
one another, because instead of enjoying each other’s company we tend to entertain ourselves
through our devices. “I share therefore I am” one of those catchy lines in the article which
means emailing, chatting, posting, sharing through our phones makes us feel connected to others
and avoid the feeling of being alone.

In order for us to practice having face to face conversation the author suggests to first
create a devise free zone, demonstrate the value of conversation, talk to one another about what
really matters, and listen to each other carefully. I agree with the author in all of statements she
stated in the article and that these steps could help us eliminate having devices our as our defense
mechanism to awkwardness, insecurity, and everything. Technology has a lot of good features
that can give us convenience in life but don’t let this thing change who we really are.