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Cell phones lead to the development of pathological narcissism
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
American sociologist and technology expert, professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sherry Turkle speaks in an interview with Der Spiegel about the impact of smartphones on our lives.
There is no clear answer to the question of whether the appearance of cell phones and smartphones has had a positive or negative impact on our lives. "In any case, they have fundamentally changed our lives," says Sherry Turkle. "I feel comfortable with it: I take it to bed with me and generally feel it as a part of me, and I perceive myself as a human robot," - this is how many people, especially representatives of the younger generation, whom Sherry Turkle interviewed for her book "Solitude Together," think, according to the expert. In this regard, the professor also mentions another, no less important change in the consciousness of modern cell phone users: people have become more willing to write than to talk.
"Real conversations between people are increasingly being replaced by communication via SMS, email and instant messengers. (...) Such communication allows us to reduce personal contacts and hide from various social situations," says the expert, emphasizing that smartphones lead to a picture of the world in which a person becomes a kind of loner. He decides for himself what, to whom and when to pay attention.
This, according to Sherry Turkle, inevitably leads to the third psychological effect, which she calls: "I communicate - therefore I exist." According to her, representatives of the younger generation have practically forgotten how to remain alone with their thoughts. They feel an urgent need to share their thoughts and ideas immediately at the moment of their emergence. And if a few years ago a story about, say, a husband calling his wife 15 times a day caused bewilderment and testified either to an obsession or to problems in family relationships, today exchanging numerous text messages is the norm.
"I will not claim that a huge number of people have any mental deviations. However, the tendency, the essence of which comes down to the need to communicate any thought or feeling, makes us talk about signs of the development of pathological narcissism," the expert says.
Sherry Turkle believes that turning a smartphone into a "friend" is dangerous. With all due respect to technological progress, she says, "a smartphone is first and foremost a machine that cannot empathize."
"I love my iPhone and am excited about many of the latest developments in information technology. I use Twitter. (...) And yet, we should not be under the illusion that a machine will ever be able to contribute to our human experience."
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