The Empathy Diaries: A Memoir

Turkle defines bricolage as “soft mastery” or a “tinkering” style of computer programming that relies on trial and error. She adopts this idea from Levi-Strauss’s The Savage Mind (1962), which speaks about it as the skill of taking whatever is on hand and making something new. Turkle’s research documents this style of coding as favored by people who aren’t adult men, such as women and children learning to code.

The French word dépaysement literally translates to “change of scenery.” Turkle discovers the concept in her undergraduate anthropology courses, defining it as “literally ‘decountrifying,’ making yourself a stranger in your environment in order to see it more clearly” (87). Turkle believes she achieves clear insight as an outsider and by living through large technological changes that start out as unusual but then become naturalized.

Turkle defines an “evocative object” as “objects that carry meaning far beyond their instrumental value” (119). These objects may evoke memories, feelings, and new thoughts by opening “up your thinking to other things” (248). In her research, Turkle considers computers as “evocative objects” that lead to thinking about the nature of the mind and learning. She has edited three books of essays from students and scientists about objects they love and that have helped them think through their own life, careers, and ideas.

The anthropologist Victor Turner conceptualized the idea of liminality, or transitional moments when established hierarchies are broken down and people are willing to relate to each other in new ways: “He argued that on a personal level, liminality encouraged change and creativity. On a social level, it fostered new symbols, rituals, art, and language” (182). Turkle applies this theory to shifts in the culture of technology, believing they offer an opportunity to rethink how computers are shaping society.