Summary and my opinion of Sherry Turkle's NYT article "Stop Googling. Let's Talk"

The article "Stop Googling. Let's Talk." written by Sherry Turkle and published in the New York Times discusses the state of conversation in today's generation.  Nowadays, many children and teenagers' attention spans do not last very long as they are tempted to reach for their phones to go online, text other people, play a game, check email, etc.  Using phones very often has a big influence on people's behavior. It can also impact relationships. This has hurt their ability to interact and properly communicate with other people face-to-face.  No longer can they empathize or read the body language of the other people they are interacting with -  so much so that they do not even know when they are hurting the feelings of another peer.  The author claims that we are treating communication as an "app" - that we expect the person we are communicating with to respond immediately and efficiently.  However, we know that true communication takes time, and the little details of conversation is where the true communication exists.  It is not just words that we speak to each other, but true conversation takes time to develop.

I agree with the author's opinion. Using phones can change people's behavior especially children's and teenager's behavior. Having been an au pair before, I can see that many children and teenager nowadays are "communicating" through their cellphones, and it is important to restrict their usage so that they understand how to communicate in person.  The parents and I have set rules for the children so that they do not use their phones during dinner time and are required to actually talk to us about their day and what has happened at school.  It is with hope that these rules will have some influence on their sense of normal communication methods and will allow them to be able to communicate better with other people in the future. I think there is also a big difference when adults are using phones and children are using the phones. Most of the time adults are able to control their behavior and it's more difficult for children. This is especially true when teenagers begin to develop emotionally and they have to figure out how to act with friends and family in deep relationships. On the other hand I believe that FaceTime, Skype and WhatsApp are giving great possibilities to stay in touch with friends and family all over the world. I think we have to find a balance between talking to people face-to-face and communicating via phones and computers.