I loved “The Wednesday Wars” and I am 52 years old. I would recommend it HIGHLY for anyone who was a teenager in the late 60s/early 70s.

Regarding your story regarding how texting affects teens development, I think a lot of what was presented can be applied to many other individuals in all generations. I’m 27 years old and I have friends who can’t even sit through a meal or an at home movie wittout contantly having their hands on their phone. I think a lot of people believe that texting and being on social sites 24/7 may make them more social but I feel that the inability to be 100% present with the company you are already with and picking up the phone or sending a card rather than a text or a facebook message for special occasions is truly reflective of the quality of your social self and the importance you give relationships.

[...] has been a disturbing run of prank calls to hotels in Alabama (H/T: Here and Now) as well as in California, Nebraska, and Arkansas. The caller tells hotel employees that they must [...]

I don’t feel Sherry Turkle’s points on texting are entirely valid. While proliferating technology does come with issues I feel this story instills a reflex nagging of the older generation. Being 22 years of age, I don’t see a majority of my college classmates texting in the way described by this piece. While there is admittedly a handful of “textaholics” I know, I personally text maybe a maximum of 30 times a month. I recieve around the same amount of text possibly more.
Excessive texting is more a social epidemic that spreads in confined spaces. Texting once or twice during a dinner shouldn’t be taken as offensive as long as it is brief. I feel this segment makes it seem like all or the majority of teenagers are texting improperly. I don’t think that is true.

Texting fits rather well in society today because social interactions became less common and simply talking to a random person in a friendly manner is seen as a more likely than not, negative experience. We are no longer in the age of lending sugar to a neighbor but rather peeking out of the window and checking security cameras wondering why a person is knocking at our door and hoping they go away or assuming it is a sales scam or religious pitch. Texting allows a new sublayer of a social experience that can be abused and misinterpreted but should be seen as ultimately beneficial. It also streamlines the communication process. It is email pinned to your body.

I believe Sherry Turkle’s opinions are too conservative. (also with robotics!)

I was back up at Purdue Thursday June 25th and just happened to be listening to WBAA when Here & Now came on. I listened to the program about Sadam’s interrogations by the FBI with interest, but I was absolutely riveted by the dialogue between you, Robin, and Mehdi Khalaji, because that dude knows whereof he speaks.

I’ve been able to get some good information from Charlie Rose and his guests—but your interview reminds me of some of the same stuff that finally broke out from underneath the Networks when Romania was busting loose from Nikolai Ceausescu. I finally understood! And I did so because the theocratic dimension was discussed as well as the political and the social.

I just now listened to Sadeq Saba from the next day’s broadcast. I think I agree with him. The current leadership has lost legitimacy with many of the people, and the mood among the people may well hover between betrayal and fear, keeping people at just a few degrees below boiling point. It will eventually come out. In spite of the threats, they won’t put up with it.

The very idea that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the others thought they could get away with this coup is likely to be their undoing. A good friend of mine from Iran, when he arrived home from school during the first revolution after the Shah, he was greeted by his father and his brothers, given a loaded .45, several clips and an AK-47. Those folks know how to take care of themselves as well as any of our good ole boys from the hills and hollers of Southern Indiana.

And I long for the people of the Iran to have the same freedom of opportunities that I do. Though this IS a crisis in politics and government, I don’t want it to be a crisis in faith. I am Christian, andI have the greatest respect for anyone trying to do what they think is right. And as long as people are reaching for the truth of things, and talking it out, good things can happen.

I remember a long time ago listening to WF Buckley and Sydney Hook talk about the big things in life. Hook said the biggest surprise of his 80+ years was that intelligence was not enough; life also took moral courage, and he wandered at what the source of moral courage was. I too believe “God Is Great”, and though I believe in the exclusivity of the saving grace of Jesus of Nazareth, and I know that rankles a lot of people, I’d be heart-broken to see people my age and younger in a land where Islam is so strong give up on the God they believe in because of this. Moral courage comes from sacrifice and caring, and God is at the heart of that whether we believe in Him or not. But it’s a whole lot easier if you do—not that it ever makes all the sense you want it to. The very way these folks protested against this evil, by showing respect, is testament to what Iran is in spite of current leadership—and I’m proud of them.

We still have to worry about the nukes and the funding of their special projects that mean to kill us all, but I’m still proud of what the people have done, and my prayers are with them.

Great job on the reporting and I hope WBAA keeps paying their bills! I’ll be listening on the net.