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This week we take a look at the different ways that people connect to each other and how they act once they’re together.
NOTE: This episode contains EXPLICIT language about sex.
Will Meetup Rebuild America?
There is a national crisis happening right now in America. Its not the economy, or the war, or mad cow disease. Its picnics. According to Harvard professor Robert Putnam, America is facing a national picnic crisis. Putnam says that in 1975 the average American went on five picnics. Today, the average American only goes on two. He also says that social isolation may be as big of a risk factor for death as smoking it may even be bigger.
Visit the Meetup.com website
Robert Putnam's Book, Bowling Alone
Out of the Chatroom and Into the Bedroom: Sex and the Internet
Two indications that sex on the internet is here to stay:
1. The word "cybersex"; has been added to the dictionary.
2. There's a website called "Furniture Porn;" where beach chairs and ottomans are posed in suggestive and, perhaps to some people, arousing positions.
Stories of love and sex in a connected age.Produced by: Ann Hepperman and Kara Oehler, Originally produced for WBEZ Chicago's series "Speaking of Sex".
The Woo Effect
According to warm up comedian Brian McAnn, if you mention the name Fabio to an audience of two-hundred people, several people in the crowd will respond my shouting, woo! But, if you mention Fabio in a one on one conversation, the person you're talking to never goes, Woo!
We try to find out why people behave the way they do in crowds.
Visit Smart Mobs by Howard Rheingold
Elias Canetti's book on 'Crowds and Power'
'Swarming and the Future of Conflict'
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