April 18, 2026
Old post, fresh fight
Sherry Turkle: "We're losing the raw, human part of being with each other"
Old news or fresh warning? Internet splits over Turkle’s “we’re losing the human” take
TLDR: MIT’s Sherry Turkle warns we’re replacing real human moments with screens and robots, from caretaking to funerals. The comments flare over timing—some say it’s old news from 2013, others argue the warning is even more urgent now—punctuated by a “life out of balance” meme to seal the mood.
Sherry Turkle—the MIT professor who once graced Wired’s cover—warns that we’re offloading life’s tender moments to screens and robots, and the comment section immediately grabs the mic. One side calls the piece dated, with a top reply sighing, “did not check the date,” and another dryly adding “Missing the (2013).” Translation: this isn’t a new panic. The counterpunch? Fans argue revisiting her hits—Alone Together and The Second Self—is useful, because the warning lands even harder now that phones live in our hands and robot “companions” keep popping up in care homes and classrooms.
Turkle’s whole vibe—arriving rain-soaked, latte-less, and very human—becomes Exhibit A for her point about nuance you only catch face-to-face. She worries we’ve hit a “robotic moment,” outsourcing childhood and old age to machines, texting through funerals, and fighting with spouses online. The community drama isn’t whether robots are real (they are), but whether these anxieties are yesterday’s headlines or today’s emergency. Cue the meme: one commenter drops a drawn-out “Koyaaaaaaaaaaaaanisqatsiiiiiiiiii”—a wink to the cult film whose title means “life out of balance.” Is Turkle a technophobe or a prophet? The thread’s vibe says both: “old take” vs. “still true, maybe truer.” Either way, the comments make it a mood.
Key Points
- •Sherry Turkle, MIT professor and director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self, warns that people are delegating key social interactions to robots and digital media.
- •Her early exposure to students using computer metaphors for cognition led her to study how AI shapes everyday thinking and relationships.
- •Turkle’s research with anthropomorphic social robots showed children forming strong emotional bonds and experiencing distress when those bonds failed.
- •She describes a societal “robotic moment,” where caregiving and education in vulnerable life stages are increasingly entrusted to robots.
- •Examples cited include robots in nursing homes, teacherbots, nannybots, couples arguing online, and texting during funerals, raising concerns about eroding face-to-face empathy.