Ben Walker – You’re no-one if you’re not on Twitter – dictation exercise

Ben Walker is a songwriter from Oxford. This is his song about digital communities on the internet, and how every new generation of this form of technology catches on as a fad, quickly becomes the norm for many people, and then another version of social networking comes along. Sites such as Twitter allow bloggers to share thoughts and feelings instantaneously with friends and family and is much faster than e-mailing or writing.

To catch on – become popular
A fad – a style, activity or interest which is very popular for a short period of time: eg Pat’s latest health fad involves cutting out all red vegetables. It sounds absolutely ridiculous to me – just very faddish. It will only last a week or two, and she’ll be into some other sort of fad.

Can you listen to this song (embedded at the foot of this page too) and complete the text?

You’re no-one if you’re not on Twitter
And if you aren’t there ……………….¹
If you haven’t been ………………….. ²
You might ………………. ³
In the old days …………….. ⁴
Collecting all your …………….⁵
Then everybody ……………….. ⁶
And suddenly ……………… ⁷
A homepage ………………. ⁸
To seem …………………..⁹
As long as you …………………… ¹⁰
And checked …………………. ¹¹

You’re no-one if you’re not on Twitter…

Technology was ……………. ¹²
And the next thing you ………………. ¹³
With ……………….. ¹⁴
And now and then ………………………..¹⁵ …
More recently the students ……………. ¹⁶
And ……………….. ¹⁷
The parties ……………..¹⁸
They’re not so great but ………………… ¹⁹ ……

‘Cos now you’re no-one if you’re not on Twitter…

Now you need to ………………. ²⁰
And every ……………….. ²¹
I’m told the Twitterverse is ……………… ²²
But most of us are ……………….. ²³
We …………………. ²⁴
And ………………….. ²⁵
We laugh …………………. ²⁶
And try to ……………………. ²⁷

‘cos now you’re no-one if you’re not on Twitter…

Transcription and some notes