This new preface by Sherry Turkle seems to be giving another version of the same thing that was described in more poetic language by Berardi in 2015 in “Phenomenology of the End”. Turkle writes:

“Conversation is about more than information. In conversation, we reveal ourselves to each other in our conflicts, contradictions, and fears.”

Where Turkle would like to save or reclaim conversation, what Berardi wants to save is called “conjunction”:

“Conjunction is the provisional and precarious syntony of vibratory organisms which exchange meaning. The exchange of meaning is based on sympathy, the sharing of a pathos.”

In Berardi’s analysis, it is perfectly possible to imagine linguistic exchanges where what happens is totally lacking in “conjunction”. In place of this full exchange of meaning between organisms, you would have mere connection. Connection, in Berardi’s terminology, corresponds to what Turkle calls information.

“Connection is the punctual and repeatable interaction of algorithmic functions, straight lines and points that overlap perfectly, and plug in or out according to discrete modes of interaction that render the different parts compatible to a pre-established standard.”