Clinical psychologist and MIT professor Sherry Turkle has studied the social and psychological effects of digital culture for over fifteen years.  In  Alone Together, the final volume in a trilogy beginning with The Second Self and continuing with Life on the Screen,  Turkle  investigates human reactions to interactive computer programs and robots, cautioning that robots are beginning  to replace human caregivers in responding  to  the  social and emotional needs of children, the disabled and the elderly. As a generation has grown up with cell phones, personal communications formerly made by phone and in person are now made online.  Paradoxically, as we are now more connected to the world, we are becoming isolated from others, avoiding the intimacy of face to face conversation.  Sherry Turkle discusses her research on TED: