The Closing Debate of the Singapore Writers Festival 2018, arguably the most popular event, lived up to its reputation for delivering local food for thought (“brain chiah”) and laughter for the belly.

This year’s topic of debate,“This house believes that Singaporeans are better off with social media” was moderated by the quick-witted and presumably nonpartisan (Malaysian) Sharmini Flint. 

As the tickets to the Closing Debate were sold out 5 hours before the event and many of you missed out, here is our blow-by-blow account (giggles and gasps omitted). 

Disclaimer: It’s all here, the unedited account of the Singapore Writers Festival 2018 Closing Debate! Well…almost. We left out a few episodes of microphone hijacking and some barbs that we felt were a bit mean. One could argue that panel members with public social media profiles have no right to cry foul about individual attacks. But we’re all for keeping things nice.