Re: "Stop Googling, Let's Talk"

To the editor:



Thank you, Sherry Turkle (9/27/15, Stop Googling, Let's Talk).  The dangers of texting and driving are well known but this piece highlights the pervasive negative impact of texting while living.  This is evident when walking down a busy street with people looking down and texting on their phones oblivious to others and the nonverbal 'conversation'  that defines consideration. More painful is the mother strolling her infant while her gaze is on her phone rather than her child.  As a psychoanalyst it is obvious that many patients use texting as a form of pseudo-intimacy and distraction from the present moment - whether it is a moment with another person or oneself.  I had one patient suggest to me that I keep talking while she responded to a text - turning off her cellphone in sessions marked the beginning process of introspection and being present.

The problem is that no one is selling, advertising, tempting the public with the 'wares' of empathy and introspection. It behooves parents to teach their children well and to have the kinds of conversations with their children that often emerge (and are remembered as special) spontaneously without distraction.



Respectfully submitted,


Larry S. Sandberg