Twitter is toxic according to Amnesty. And indeed, one wonders if Twitter deliberately keep it that way to give it an ‘edge’ of sorts?

First published Dec.2018 … did it age well?

It’s interesting how different media platforms have a ‘collective character’ , a group mentality. The collective that is Twitter seems to have developed and maintained a character and characteristics of:

Intolerance and division.

Lack of compassion.

Lack of true debate.

Unwillingness to consider opposing views.

Immaturity.

Critisism.

With occasional bouts of actual abusivenss and threat. And sometimes wit and clever humour. Exotic Spresm to you all.

If one walks into a space, be it physical or digital, one picks up on the ‘rules’ of that space very quickly. Is it acceptable to say this, or do that? Different spaces have different tones. Taken to extremes, this collectivity ‘permits’ people to loot during a riot, it happened in London, looting because the rules about how shopping was conducted had changed / disappeared.

Twitter is quite unrestricted. It allows people to be free in their posts, to a large degree. This passes the buck of self awareness back to the writers. And they use it accordingly. One of the issues is that people have certain behaviours reinforced. Someone posts an attacking response or message, and they get reactions. So they do it again. And again. And it escalates, and in some ways, becomes addictive.

It’s like a collective ‘hive mind’ almost. It almost feels like it doesn’t matter what one person says. The ideal is for a divisive situation, pretty much binary, and whichever side get’s the most / strongest messages ‘wins’. It’s probably how our brains work and make decisions. Whatever shouts loudest gets heard.

Anyway. Here’s the piece from Amnesty.

I personally believe Twitter could make changes to their platform to filter out and prevent people receiving abuse, but they don’t do it because it would reduce Twitters own metrics, including its contraversial nature, the mainstream media coverage it receives, and the ‘social relevance’ of it.

Social media platforms lack a ‘conscience.’ This is what’s actually needed.

Photo by Clarke Sanders on Unsplash