'Thanks to facebook I have time to spare': writers embrace the social network at Writers Unlimited

Fouad Laroui does not do internet. The Moroccan-born author and professor does not even have a mobile phone. "I realise that this makes me part of a small elite," he declared during a debate at Writers Unlimited, "but I don't see the point of it." His tablemates did not share his opinion, which is quite remarkable. Just a few years ago, most of the international writing elite regarded social media as something with which they did not need to interfere.

Even guest of honour Amin Maalouf (1949), someone whose age and status as a member of the Académie Française would lead you to associate more with quills and carrier pigeons, is an avid Twitter follower. Although the award-winning journalist and writer does not dare send messages of 140 characters into the world himself: "I don't tweet, but this last year Twitter has become my main news source."

Aminatta Forna, journalist and writer from Scotland, lives almost exclusively online. Her world is Facebook. Whether that doesn't take up too much of her time, interviewer Sheila Sitalsing asked. "On the contrary, " explained the television producer and writer: "It saves me an enormous amount of time. Thanks to Facebook, I am always in touch with all my friends. Imagine if I had to get dressed and make up, put on my coat and travel to them all the time for that."

Andrés Neuman, who in part because his literary blog Microreplicas so popular in the Spanish-speaking part of the world was invited to Writers Unlimited, goes a few steps further. He regards passive Twitter users like Amin Maalouf as stalkers and peepers: "You spy without exposing yourself. That is not honourable." It did not lead to an argument. Everyone was too nice to each other during this conversation for that. Nor did they come to a conclusion about whether it was a good thing or not. That internet. It remained a bit of a draw.

Too bad though, because the lecture with which Amin Maalouf opened the discussion offered plenty of starting points for more. His story, which itself was almost line-by-line tweetable, so pithy, boiled down to the fact that differences between people are precisely the key to the long-term success of societies: "Spain could not cope with the new wealth as a world power after the discovery of America because its society was not diverse enough. They had chased Muslims and Jews out of the country just before that."