The internet bandwagon
I admit it: I'm addicted to the internet. Like our addiction to the mobile phone, I find it almost impossible to imagine how we coped before Google. Of course many of you continue to cope without it, as you were quick to tell us on this morning's programme. But Hamish in Ayr told us he felt "forced" into using the web, especially for booking flights with a certain airline.
That's why Morning Extra remains primarily a phone-in programme. It's the one communication tool, more than any other, which nearly all of us have access to. Sure, it's nice to receive texts and emails, but nothing beats hearing a voice to convey people's passions, their frustrations and their joys. That's what makes good radio.
Which is precisely why I don't get the current obsession some radio presenters have with the internet bandwagon that is . Twitter is a bit like this blog, except that all posts (or 'tweets' as they're known) are limited to a maximum of 140 characters. More analysis here.
Twitter has its uses, including the potential to reconnect voters with their political representatives. You can now follow the moves of US President and check what has been up to. And has it's own useful update on the latest stories (although I personally prefer using ).
But... is there any point in radio presenters using it? At a recent for students I was taken aback by the excitement Twitter was generating — not among the students, but purely among some of my industry colleagues. Two of them in particular were showing off their iPhones and bragging about all the 'tweets' they were following. One turned to me and said: "Aren't you using Twitter on your programme, Graham?"
"Eh, no," I sheepishly replied, feeling like some kind of luddite. I may be wrong, but I imagine most of our listeners have no interest in Twitter. As a fellow presenter friend of mine said to me the other night: "Why doesn't this industry just concentrate on making good radio, rather than obsessing over the latest internet fashions?"
He may have a point. A host I know on one of Scotland's biggest commercial radio stations updates his Twitter almost continuously. Yet there are only 386 people 'following' him. That's a tiny audience compared to the hundreds of thousands of people who tune into his radio show every week.
So, I'm in a dilemma: do I tweet? Or is tweeting just for twits?
Now, if you've read this far down you're clearly not a part of the digitial generation that's ! That was the subject of Â鶹Éç Radio 4's Analysis programme last night and a topic for conversation on today's Morning Extra. So tell me, is the internet making us stupid?
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