EDITORIAL: Me and Twitter
EDITORIAL: Me and Twitter
Its the holidays, can we just lighten up. . .
D. S. Mitchell
Twitter and Tweet
I love Twitter. I hate Twitter. I love Twitter. I hate Twi….I know. I sound a bit confused in my base emotions surrounding this global social sparring arena, and I am. My relationship with the Twitter platform, reminds me of a couple bad relationships I’ve had in my life. I hate you, I love you, I apparently, “love to hate you”. There is something to be said about high adrenaline. However it is usually like placing a pile of papers on a table and turning on a fan. I forgot who said that, but I think it is applicable.
Commitment
To all of the clear thinking, intelligent, brilliant folks that hope for a more tolerant and inclusive world, I love tossing tweets back and forth, and I love you all. So many caring and committed individuals wanting to do everything they can do, to advance society and humanity.
Conversely
The ‘I hate’ side of me, comes out when somebody in the audience decides to suddenly join in, by launching a vile attack. Why would someone choose to do that? Hmmm. Good question. Not all vicious attacks come from Nigerian trolls, I have decided. Is it because the offender didn’t get any nookie last night, or did Mom yell at him, did he get a bad grade, was he passed over for a promotion, did he have a fender bender?
You are Your Words
Who, the Hell knows? the angry emotions propelling those rapid little finger hits on the phone keys subvert the medium itself, “I can’t see you. You can’t see me. So, I will say something disgusting and revolting because there are no consequences for my actions”. That excuse makes no sense if you are a person with a moral compass. Each of us are the words we speak, our words are our legacy.
Find a Better Outlet
It’s easier to be thoughtless and insulting, when an individual doesn’t have to look an opponent in the eye. I can tell by the tone of the tweets that many of the folks in the cyber world are red faced, white knuckled, jaw grinding angry. So, all I’m saying is that, if someone is mad, they should be able to find enough self control, to re-channel that anger, turn it to energy and go run a couple miles, go for a swim, clean out the garage, wax the floors, do the laundry, walk the dog, VOLUNTEER. Get that unhealthy anger out, through exercise and accomplishment, rather than attacking someone 5,000 miles away that you will never see, and quite frankly, could care less about your meltdown.
Bad Ass
Being a bully, whether at work, on the playground, or on the web, is just ugly. It’s inexcusable. It is disgusting and it needs to stop. If you are angry and you want to increase the value of your argument, be intelligent, and thoughtful in your comments. People will listen. People are ready for fresh and inspirational ideas and solutions.
Basic Instincts
Anyone can put a string of four letter words together, even me. But, I’m asking that we aim to be better than that. We are all, in the end, just human beings trying to do the best we can in an uncertain world. As such, we don’t always attain the level of goodness that we aspire to, but if there is no aspiration then there is no gain. There is no improvement or advancement. If we are going to resort to base instincts, then I suggest we are still cavemen, but now we have technology as our club.
I Don’t Mind Listening. . .Until
I listen to conservatives, all the time, I just don’t agree with them. Within five minutes all of them will spin off on some tin hat conspiracy theory. I try to listen until they begin attacking, or trying to spin their arguments BACK TWO DECADES to the actions of Bill Clinton’s scandal plagued presidency. Or, God forbid, Hillary running a sex trafficking ring out of the basement of a D.C. pizza joint that doesn’t even have a basement.
Only Those That Know Me
I find it truly offensive that someone who doesn’t even know me, resorts to calling me such vile names as, bi—, sl–, cu–, wh—, as—–. I feel, that only people who really know me and have evidence to support those epithets, should be allowed to use them. You know, what I mean. Save those really nasty words for someone you know that can live up to them.
Keep the Platform Friendly
Twitter should be respected as a great social platform, where people can safely exchange ideas in a civilized manner. A good fight is one thing, but using an outhouse of vile, foul language to shut down the exchange of ideas is really inappropriate. I understand passion. Passion comes from understanding your goals and developing a sensible plan to reach those goals. As such, it is not achieved through angry vile rants to someone that has volunteered an opinion on a topic you oppose.
If He Can Do It Mentality
Some people are blaming the impulsive, out of control behavior displayed by our previous president. The theory is that “if Trump can do it, so can I” has taken over social media thinking, face to face, on-street hostile behaviors, and confrontations between legislators on the floors of the U.S Congress. I’m not sure I’m ready to jump on the back of that hypothesis. There has been a long history of rudeness in this country, particularly on the public stage.
Sometimes 240 Characters Aren’t Enough
I am however, ready to ask folks on social media to respect a couple of the basic original Twitter platform objectives of idea sharing and participation in life events, in a safe, albeit, abbreviated manner. In my mind, it is almost like the old telegraph communications translated to cyber space. I think sometimes 240 characters is too limiting, and maybe that fact leads to misunderstandings. I don’t know, I just know that today I felt, I needed at least 300 characters to express my feelings to a particular individual.
So, enough said. Please, follow me on Twitter, and remember to talk nice. @calamitypolitic and my indie author page @ditchawk.
