The Lonely Cyborg
Listen now
Description
Dr Thomas Dixon brings his major new series on the changing face of friendship to a close with a look at how the old and the young are navigating their friendships today through technologies old and new, and at how friendship might look in the future. Episode 15: The Lonely Cyborg A group of Birmingham schoolgirls prove themselves thoughtful and self-aware about how to conduct their friendships online and about the differences between online and face-to-face friendships. Professor Deborah Chambers, an authority on social media and personal relationships from the University of Newcastle, confirms that fears about children's online friendships with strangers have been exaggerated. At the other end of the life-span, Thomas Dixon speaks with the writer Penelope Lively about friendship in her ninth decade, and about why she likes to consider herself part of "the landline generation". Closing the series, Thomas Dixon emphasizes the importance of physical touch and presence for friendship, and presents a final montage of the voices which have featured throughout the series, sharing stories of their own friendships. Producer: Beaty Rubens.
More Episodes
Dr Thomas Dixon brings his major history of friendship up to the 1970s, when gender politics began to change friendships once again, and considers how popular culture both reflected and influenced this change. Episode 14: Families of Choice. Professor Barbara Taylor shares with Thomas Dixon...
Published 04/10/14
Dr Thomas Dixon continues to trace the changing meaning of friendship over the last five hundred years. Episode 13: In Need, In Deed, By Post Mass Observation and the archive of the Co-Operative Correspondence Club provide intimate evidence for friendship during the Second World War. Dr...
Published 04/09/14
Continuing his history of friendship over the last five hundred years, Dr Thomas Dixon explores how friendship was changed by a new form of technology and a new type of science in the early years of the twentieth century. Episode 12: The Suburbs of the Heart Just as the internet has been seen...
Published 04/08/14