Earlier this week, NY Times Executive Editor Bill Keller knowingly invited a Tweet Storm when he mused that an increase in the use of social media has diminished the complexity of thought and emotion. Keller was referring specifically to today’s youngsters, who are being raised on the limitations of expressing themselves in 140 characters or less, and the surreality of having 1,000 friends at age 13.

Keller also points out that his publication has benefitted mightily from the advent of Twitter, for example. He even cops to getting immense satisfaction from seeing his editorials and other journalistic endeavors “neatly bitly’d and shared around the Twittersphere.” But he worries what kind of negative emotional and ultimately societal blowback that social media has had on us now and will have on future generations.
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