To Tweet or Not To Tweet

In The New York Times

I borrowed this title from a not-so-great New York Times article in which Maureen Dowd interviewed Biz Stone and Evan Williams, creators of Twitter.  The entire article consists of Dowd berating Twitter and Stone and Williams doing little to try to make her change her mind, which given her remark that the pair has "destroy[ed] civilization as we know it" was probably the smart thing to do.  Dowd comes off as a close-minded jerk, and the Twitter creators show they understand that their site is not for everyone but has a real place in social media, citing the role Twitter has played in the revolutions in the Middle East.  The best line in the article comes when Dowd asks if Shakespeare would have used Twitter, and Stone replies, "Brevity’s the soul of wit, right?"

In Film

Page One: Inside the New York Times is a new documentary that follows a few NYT reporters over the course of a year at the beginning of the rise of social media as a source for news and the subsequent decrease in circulation of print media.  One of the reporters who caught my eye was Brian Stelter, a young up-and-comer dedicated to new media including Twitter.  The star of the documentary, David Carr, says of Stelter, “I still can’t get over the feeling that Brian Stelter was a robot assembled in the basement of The New York Times to come and destroy me.”  And that's the way many print journalists feel about new media.  Below is a clip from PBS news show Need to Know (which I love) discussing the film with Stelter and Carr.  Stelter's brief discussion of Twitter leaves the audience with no questions as to his feelings about the social networking site.

Watch the full episode. See more Need To Know.

In the Classroom



The debate is raging among educators about the place social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, blogging, etc., should have in the classroom, if any.  I plan on researching and writing a future post about different ways to use Twitter in the classroom, but as for now I will not take a firm stand.  Not having used Twitter myself, I am not yet able to give an educated response on the subject.  However, I am intrigued by the use of Twitter in schools, and this video provides an interesting example of a digital classroom.