THE UGLY SIDE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Twitter is one of the most interesting social media platforms out on the internet currently. Compared to facebook, its main social media rival, twitter is seen as a far more direct way to communicate ideas. Its entire social structure is designed to allow people to quickly communicate directly with others on the platform in the form of ‘tweets’. That means that everyday people can tweet celebrities, politicians, scientists and even each other on demand. But how does this unprecedented access change the dynamics of the way people engage in discourse, especially of a political nature. In this article, I will briefly go through the good, the bad, and the ugly side of twitter. But firstly, what is twitter and how does it work?
HOW
Twitter uses tweets as its main communication method. A tweet is a short message, limited to 280 characters, that uses hashtags (#) and twitter handles (effectively a username, e.g. @username) to target the message to people with similar interests. Twitter is very good at organising topics of interest, and this is what makes it so appealing to many people. They simply type in what interests them, and then they are connected to a variety of other users with similar interests. It’s this unique approach to social interaction that has allowed twitter to grow to its current massive size, boasting over 330 million users. But as we will soon see, this interesting method is great, but also has its downsides. What about Facebook? Well, this is where twitter really differentiates itself. Twitter and Facebook do not serve the same function. Where facebook can be equated to a shopping mall, twitter is a market square. With Facebook, users use the ‘like’ function to engage themselves with pages that appeal to them and use the ‘friend’ function to connect with people. There is the comments section, but it isn’t as interconnected as twitter is. This is why I equate it to a shopping mall, with people choosing discrete groups to interact within, and usually, just observe the posts without interacting. Kind of like shoppers who only go into stores that are relevant to them and just browse the products. With twitter, at any point in time, anyone can engage any hashtag or individual. It’s a chaotic hodgepodge of conversations all interlaced with one another, and the word limit just serves to make it even harder to separate ideas. But this is the beauty of the system, just like a market square, the chaos is positive, it allows its users to experience a vast variety of topics and interests, just like a market.
THE GOOD
Let’s start with the good stuff first. The most obvious benefit to having such an interconnected social media platform is the interconnection itself. In what other domain of life would a normal person have the opportunity to contact their musical idol or local politician. Email sure wouldn’t work, spam filters these days are far too advanced to allow the plebians access to the better off. Snail mail is far to slow and still needs an address, plus if you write something naughty, they have your prints on paper. And as we discussed, Facebook has nowhere near the user interaction necessary to drive the social interactions that constitute meaningful discourse. So Twitter presents us with a new opportunity to connect with people we wouldn’t normally be seen with. This is great, particularly because it means at any point in time I could decide to tweet whatever I want to Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany. Be it my face, a picture of a dog or a quality meme, all could be sent to the digital doorstep of the chancellor. This goes for any other twitter account. Moreover, if someone of note actually wanted to engage in a conversation with their followers, then they could.
In the famous words of Jon Ronson, Twitter gives “voices to the voiceless”, and he is entirely correct. Twitter has allowed us to comment on our own society, rather than stand off to the side and watch our elected representatives do the talking. It has allowed us to socially punish reprehensible behavior by mercilessly tweeting ‘shame’. If a politician is caught with his fingers in some questionable pies, his dirty laundry would be aired all over the hashtags of Twitter. The effects this would have can not be understated. Sponsors would pull out thanks to the negative press, newspapers would pick up on the story more easily and publish scathing articles and come next electoral cycle votes may very well swing in the other candidate’s favor. The hashtags are also a great way to see which topic is trending worldwide or in your country. Recent hashtag highlights include #koalakiller, #okboomer and #Medevac. If you are curious about any of these I encourage you to go and find them on twitter, good luck.
THE BAD
Twitter has some serious flaws, and unfortunately, they are proving to be lethal. Twitter’s growth rate has flatlined several times in the past 2 years, which is a terrible sign for the future of the platform. What has caused this? Firstly let’s explore the point of interconnectedness again. Because Twitter can connect everyone to every idea, it can also connect the ‘wrong’ people to an idea. Im talking about internet trolls, extremists and general crazies. On twitter, just as easily as I can send a photo of a dog to Chancellor Merkel, user Kimberley Here can send her a photo of someone resembling her next to Adolf Hitler. For those who are unfamiliar with Hitler, he is a very taboo topic in Germany. Now, if it wasn’t for twitter this may never have happened. But it’s not just the small, individual trolls, that constitute this problem. Powerful people can also use twitter as a vent and behave worse than they would in the public domain. From Elon Musk, the down to earth billionaire making pedophilia accusations against a rescue diver, to Donald Trump and his weaponized Twitter account. All who can use twitter for good, can easily stray from the path. And some use it purely with malintent in mind. On the topic of world leaders, none have mastered Twitter quite like the current President of the United States. I know he is already a popular icon, whether despised or loved he truly is a talented tweeter. Trump uses his twitter to discredit his enemies and rile up his supporters. More than once he has tweeted out comments that are purposefully inflammatory, their sole purpose to build up attention. You would think that this is a good thing for him, and it is. But for the rest of us, a politician with that kind of polarity is not great. I won’t be focussing on the man that is Donald Trump, but rather the impact that his tweets have.
In November 2018, Donald Trump tweeted to Emanuel Macron, President of France, in response to his statements about the necessity of a European army. Within the tweet, Trump labeled Macrons discussion as insulting and included a veiled threat that the US is the lynchpin of NATO and contributes the most money to the organization, of which France is a part of. This tweet among many demonstrates that Twitter can have far-reaching consequences and not just in the public domain. It is a problem, that an internet social media site can impact the foreign relations of countries. In reality, international relations are complex constructs, built by experts of different nations. But when the words of a few people can undo the work of experts, the problem becomes serious.
THE UGLY
This brings to the ugly side, twitter has mutated into a malevolent entity that does not forgive and does not forget. In a famous story from 2015, Justine Sacco, a HR manager, tweeted the following “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!”. For all intents and purposes, the meaning behind the tweet is clear, it was intended to be a little dark humor. Now, I love comedy, especially dark humor, and this joke wasn’t all too funny. The joke itself was simply mocking the typical Americans and their lack of awareness. You’d think that this isn’t anything important but what happened to Justine because of it is incredible. Over the next 11 hours, while she was flying, her message blew up, and she became the number 1 trending topic on twitter. From all corners of life, people she had never met bombarded her with tweets of shame, anger, and abuse. Her employer was also targeted, and her job was forfeit. Think about it, because of a few words, written on twitter, this woman lost her job. It’s insane, that we live in a world where people can face very physical consequences for inocuous actions online. I firmly believe, that there is no circumstance where something like this, a little tweet, should impact a person’s life and health. If Justine had said this joke among friends at a bar, nothing would have happened.
Twitter has become this machine of hyperinflation, taking little, innocuous comments and blowing them so far out of proportion that the physical results are scary. And it can happen to anyone. It gets worse, however, because this moronic and malevolent behavior is translating out of the internet and into real life. People have gone from sensibly debating ideas to outright rioting for little more than a few words. Granted, a lot of these events happen in America, but even here in Australia, more and more I’m encountering people who don’t want to voice controversial opinions and jokes simply because they are afraid of the backlash. What is happening is that discourse has been suppressed and in its place has risen horrific vitriol. People can still have conversations on twitter, but if the topic has even a shred of controversy associated with it, then out the window goes any sense of logic or respect for fellow people. We can no longer have civil discussions on important topics, such as climate change, policy, and international relations. Instead, we have the internet equivalent of screaming and kicking, with others on the sideline simply watching and laughing, occasionally adding fuel to the fire.
It is because of this, that I don’t use twitter. Sure, I have an account, but what’s the point of being able to voice a genuine idea or opinion when it will be covered by a sea of disingenuous hatred. Twitter used to be a mechanism of genuine value to those who used it, but now more so than ever it is simply an engine of mistrust and goes against the very ethos of its creation, to bring people’s ideas together.
