How we got sucked into live-tweeting at conferences

Posted on July 22, 2014 by Carolyn Thomas

What live-tweeting looks like from the stage

Me: “My name is Carolyn, and I live-tweet at conferences . . .”

You (all together now): “Hello, Carolyn!”

Yes, dear readers, I’m talking about the obsessive practice of live-tweeting to your Twitter followers those awkward little bits and pieces of a speaker’s presentation at conferences, meetings or major events.

I’m also talking from the perspective of a person who has both been onstage as a conference speaker in front of an audience of people who are live-tweeting what I’m saying, AND who has also furiously live-tweeted other conference speakers. And here’s why I’ve finally become a recovering live-tweeter. Continue reading →

Texting at funerals

Posted on December 15, 2012 by Carolyn Thomas

Dr. Sherry Turkle is worried. The MIT prof (and author of Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less From Each Other) told an interviewer from The Verge recently that one of her main concerns is how to get families to talk to each other at the dinner table – instead of texting. What also concerns her is that young people may think of communication as being a Like button.

“People are texting at funerals! (Only during the boring bits, they protest). But things worth doing (like grassroots political campaigning) often require boring bits. For good stuff to happen, people need to talk to each other.” Continue reading →