wbur.org
support wbur today!
Listen to this show
The World According to Twitter
photo

By host Tom Ashbrook:

Once there was slow talk and silence. Then came letters – delivered by horse or sailing ship, months in coming, deep in thought. Then came the telegraph, telephone, cell-phone, e-mail, Palm Pilot, Blackberry, texting, instant messaging, and now — Twitter.

Non-stop, instant communication from anywhere, all the time. Hyper-connectivity, always present, in a non-stop global mind-share of twittering micro-thoughts. “Hungry!” “Love duck.” “Doing dishes.” “Off to bed.”

We’re pushing deeper into the seamless cyber-mind. Are we happy now?

This hour On Point: Twitter, and the hyper-connected culture.

Guests:

Jack Dorsey, co-founder, Twitter.com

Rob Pegoraro, personal technology columnist, The Washington Post

Holly Willis, professor of media studies at the University of Southern California and editor of the forthcoming book, “The New Ecology of Things”

Robert Scoble, former Microsoft blogger, now vice president for media development at Podtech.net.

 
 
Listener comments
Recent Shows
The Future of Aging
Thursday, November 5, 2009 image

A surge of new strategies to “manage” aging — from diets to testosterone. We’ll get the story.

Comments [31]
 
Climate, Congress & Copenhagen
Thursday, November 5, 2009 image

The Copenhagen climate conference is one month away. US climate action is going nowhere in Congress. We’ll look at the global implications of America’s domestic climate politics.

Comments [73]
On Point Blog
California, here we come! And we need your questions!

On Point is headed west!
No, no. Not for good. Only for one show. But it’s a very special show!  The NPR station in Thousand Oaks, California – KCLU – is celebrating their 15th anniversary. We’re lucky to have been on their airwaves for nearly seven years, and they invited us out west to host a live [...]

More » | Comments [9]
 
For Love of Science – or Money?

A new study supports the idea that U.S. dominance in engineering and science is threatened — but not for lack of training and education. It has more to do with a lack of social and economic incentives.

More » | Comments [5]
 
Matthew Hoh’s Resignation Letter

Matthew Hoh, a former Marine captain, became the first foreign service official to publicly resign in protest over the war in Afghanistan. The move has generated a lot of reaction. You can read Hoh’s resignation letter, posted by The Washington Post, which reported on it here.
It’s a topic for our news roundtable today. What [...]

More » | Comments [4]