I’m just back from a short trip to England to talk about The Information. There was a lot of tweeting.

For example, while I was speaking early one afternoon at the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, some in the audience were surreptitiously thumbing their little devices. Or not even surreptitiously—there was an official hashtag. One listener tweeted in real time:

James Gleick talk at the RSA “The Information”. Interesting nuggets, but I’m not really getting the big picture.

I entirely sympathize. Two days later, at the British Library, I interrupted myself and asked whether anyone was tweeting. I didn’t see any hands go up. I hope I didn’t sound confrontational about it. I could read their tweets afterward.

The BBC correspondent Nick Higham interviewed me at the Science Museum for his program, Meet the Author, and immediately tweeted as follows:

I guess not. I’m trying, though.