Parenting Skills: Bonus Session – NP0019

Consider the enormous psychological and cultural impact of today’s digital technologies on children, adolescents, parents, and society in this enlightening address with renowned MIT psychologist Sherry Turkle. You’ll discover that our smartphones, laptops, tablets, social media sites, and other electronic gadgets have a deeper impact on us as individuals, families, and society at large than we might have previously realized.

After you hear this presentation, please take a few minutes to comment about what you found most interesting or relevant, to ask any questions you have of the presenter or your colleagues, or to share any experiences. What were the most important or interesting takeaways from this series for you, professionally or personally? As always, if you ever have any technical questions, please feel free to email support@psychotherapynetworker.org and our Support Team will help you.

This morning’s keynote, “Cyber Intimacy and Cyber Solitude” with Sherry Turkle, perfectly fit the theme of this year’s Symposium, “Braving New Worlds”—and Rich Simon’s musical production of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” also appropriately fit the theme of exploration. Turkle, the director of MIT’s Initiative on Technology and Self and a clinical psychologist, spoke about the evolution of our relationships with technology, as illustrated by her extensive studies, as well as her own, changed perspectives and understanding of our beloved electronics.

In the 1970s, she was hired by MIT to teach sociology, but was so struck by the “love affair” she reported students having with computers that she decided to change her role at MIT to instead study and track these shifting relationships.