Sherry Turkle, professor at MIT and one of the foremost scholars of technology's impact on human relationships, documented in Alone Together how digital communication is fundamentally reshaping our social capabilities:
- People increasingly prefer texting over talking, controlling the interaction to avoid the vulnerability of real-time conversation
- Children growing up with social robots and AI companions may develop reduced capacity for empathy — learning to relate to entities that simulate but don't truly feel emotion
- The "Goldilocks effect": technology offers relationships that are "just right" — enough connection without the demands of real human interaction
- AI companions create an illusion of companionship without the risks (rejection, disagreement, compromise) that build genuine social skills
Prophetic for the AI Age
Written before ChatGPT and AI companions like Replika, Turkle's analysis has proven remarkably prescient. The rise of AI girlfriends/boyfriends, AI therapists, and AI friends validates her concern that we are choosing simulated relationships over real ones.
Source
Turkle, S. (2017). Alone Together. Basic Books, 3rd edition.