Sherry Turkle

Sherry Turkle is a clinical psychologist and sociologist at MIT's Media Lab who has spent decades examining how digital technologies reshape human identity, relationships, and cognition. Her early work, including *The Second Self* (1984) and *Life on the Screen* (1995), explored how computers and online spaces enable identity experimentation and virtual community. In recent years, particularly through *Alone Together* (2011) and *Reclaiming Conversation* (2015), she has become a prominent critic of smartphone culture and social media, arguing that constant connectivity paradoxically increases loneliness and diminishes our capacity for solitude, deep reading, and face-to-face intimacy.

Turkle's research combines ethnographic observation, interviews, and psychoanalytic theory to understand how people form attachments to technology and how digital mediation affects developmental psychology, especially in children and adolescents. She has been influential in shaping public discourse around technology ethics and digital wellness, frequently speaking to policymakers, educators, and general audiences. Her work is characterized by nuance—she neither celebrates nor demonizes technology, but insists on examining trade-offs and advocating for intentional, human-centered design.

Sherry Turkle is a clinical psychologist and MIT sociologist whose research on human-technology relationships has shaped contemporary debates about digital culture. Her books—from *The Second Self* to *Reclaiming Conversation*—combine ethnographic study with psychoanalytic insight to argue that smartphones and social media, despite promises of connection, often deepen isolation and erode attention. She is a leading voice in technology ethics and digital wellness discourse.