¿Hemos sacrificado la conversación por la conexión? Estamos sumidos en la cultura digital y en un estado de constante conexión. Hemos desarrollado afición por las interacciones sociales virtuales dentro de los ámbitos del trabajo, la familia, la amistad, la educación y las relaciones sentimentales, sin advertir el peligro que ello comporta. Casi sin darnos cuenta, hemos abandonado la conversación cara a cara. Sherry Turkle, la principal especialista en la interacción entre las nuevas tecnologías y el ser humano, analiza en este libro las desastrosas consecuencias de la pérdida de la conversación que hemos experimentado en los últimos años, que hace peligrar lo que nos define como seres humanos. En defensa de la conversación es una cautivadora apología del valor fundamental de las conversaciones cara a cara en todos los ámbitos de nuestra vida y una llamada a recuperar el terreno perdido. "Turkle no está en contra de la tecnología, sino a favor de la conversación. Su antídoto es muy simple: hay que hablar más los unos con los otros." The Guardian "Son los inquietantes aspectos sobre la sociedad y la tecnología móvil a los que Sherry Turkle atiende en un libro inteligente y observador." The New York Book Review "El argumento de Turkle proviene de su extensa investigación y de la agudeza de su conocimiento psicológico." Jonathan Frazen, The New York Times "Un libro incisivo y brillante que explica el poder de la conversación." Howard Gardner "Un libro persuasivo e íntimo que explora las sutilezas de las relaciones humanas." The Washington Post "El libro de Turkle es ingenioso, está bien escrito y da mucho que pensar Hablar no cuesta nada, pero la conversación no tiene precio." Boston Globe "Recuerda qué está en juego cuando la máquina se impone a las conversaciones cara a cara, pero defiende que no es demasiado tarde para recuperarlas." Seattle Times

“In a time in which the ways we communicate and connect are constantly changing, and not always for the better, Sherry Turkle provides a much needed voice of caution and reason to help explain what the f*** is going on.” —Aziz Ansari, author of Modern Romance Renowned media scholar Sherry Turkle investigates how a flight from conversation undermines our relationships, creativity, and productivity—and why reclaiming face-to-face conversation can help us regain lost ground. We live in a technological universe in which we are always communicating. And yet we have sacrificed conversation for mere connection. Preeminent author and researcher Sherry Turkle has been studying digital culture for over thirty years. Long an enthusiast for its possibilities, here she investigates a troubling consequence: at work, at home, in politics, and in love, we find ways around conversation, tempted by the possibilities of a text or an email in which we don’t have to look, listen, or reveal ourselves. We develop a taste for what mere connection offers. The dinner table falls silent as children compete with phones for their parents’ attention. Friends learn strategies to keep conversations going when only a few people are looking up from their phones. At work, we retreat to our screens although it is conversation at the water cooler that increases not only productivity but commitment to work. Online, we only want to share opinions that our followers will agree with – a politics that shies away from the real conflicts and solutions of the public square. The case for conversation begins with the necessary conversations of solitude and self-reflection. They are endangered: these days, always connected, we see loneliness as a problem that technology should solve. Afraid of being alone, we rely on other people to give us a sense of ourselves, and our capacity for empathy and relationship suffers. We see the costs of the flight from conversation everywhere: conversation is the cornerstone for democracy and in business it is good for the bottom line. In the private sphere, it builds empathy, friendship, love, learning, and productivity. But there is good news: we are resilient. Conversation cures. Based on five years of research and interviews in homes, schools, and the workplace, Turkle argues that we have come to a better understanding of where our technology can and cannot take us and that the time is right to reclaim conversation. The most human—and humanizing—thing that we do. The virtues of person-to-person conversation are timeless, and our most basic technology, talk, responds to our modern challenges. We have everything we need to start, we have each other. Turkle's latest book, The Empathy Diaries (3/2/21) is available now.

This book is about the formation of identity, primarily in adolescents, and the danger inherent in creating that identity in the context of a hyperconnected world. It provides scientific and regulatory pedagogical knowledge associated with these risks in creating identity, primarily among young people, arising from increasing, and increasingly important, screen connection times. It proposes solutions to the educational challenges of constructing identity in a hyperconnected society. The book focuses especially on the process of identity formation in this instance, where both adolescents and the adults who teach them have forgotten the vital need to incorporate educational theories and principles, novel, experimental and basic, kn any discussion of adolescent identity work.

Can behaviour on social media predict future purchase patterns? Can what we click on social media foresee which political party will we vote for? Can the information we share on our wall foretell the next series I might want to watch? Can the likes on Instagram and Facebook predict the time one will spend on digital platforms in the next hour? The answer is no longer science fiction. It points to the ability of mainstream social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to be able to deliver specialised advertising services to highly targeted audience segments controlled by the billions of devices that flood our daily lives. At the same time, it highlights a more relevant problem: can social media guide, suggest or impose a certain behaviour or thought? Everything seems to indicate that they can do it. Predictive Technology in Social Media comprises 10 essays that reflect on the power of the predictive technology of social media in culture, entertainment, marketing, economics and politics. It shows, from a humanistic and critical perspective, the predictive possibilities of social media platforms, as well as the risks this entails for cultural plurality, everyday consumption, the monopolistic concentration of the economy and attention, and democracy. The text is an invitation to think, as citizens, about the unbridled power we have ceded to digital platforms. A new voice to warn about the greatest concentration of communicative power ever seen in the history of humanity.

¿Quién es tan enemigo de Roma como para no defender el altar de la diosa Victoria? Verano de 384. El Imperio Romano está dividido. Teodosio gobierna oriente desde Constantinopla. El pequeño Valentiniano II reside en Milán y, asistido por su madre Justina y vigilado por el obispo Ambrosio, administra los territorios centrales. Mientras, el usurpador Máximo, cuyos dominios se extienden por occidente, tiene su sede en Tréveris. Los hunos amenazan las fronteras de l Imperio. La nación goda, tras varias revueltas, se somete a los tratados para establecerse como aliada en las provincias de Mesia y Tracia. El cristianismo goza del respaldo de los emperadores, pero entre sus seguidores existen importantes desavenencias y conflictos. En Roma, un grupo de senadores, encabezados por el prefecto Simmaco, urde un plan para conseguir que el joven Valentiniano devuelva las ayudas económicas a los cultos paganos y restituya la estatua de la diosa Victoria al lugar donde siempre estuvo, el edificio de la Curia. Mientras tanto, en un lugar de Italia, unos monjes destruyen un santuario dedicado a la diosa Diana.

Very few contemporary television programs provoke spirited responses quite like the dystopian series Black Mirror. This provocative program, infamous for its myriad apocalyptic portrayals of humankind's relationship with an array of electronic and digital technologies, has proven quite adept at offering insightful commentary on a number of issues contemporary society is facing. This timely collection draws on innovative and interdisciplinary theoretical frameworks to provide unique perspectives about how confrontations with such issues should be considered and understood through the contemporary post-media condition that drives technology use.