Twitter’s Bad Reputation- Week 3 Post 2
So there’s this tweet:
https://mobile.twitter.com/thedweck/status/1132328834265624576
This tweet represents what my previous perception of twitter was prior to this class. I’d largely heard about twitter in terms of harassment, the spread of misinformation, doxxing, and other bad things. I’d also heard that Twitter administrators were largely unresponsive to these complaints. I’d heard about these negative aspects from the news, from bloggers I follow, memes, articles, you name it. It didn’t really seem to be a site worth trying out, based on all that.
Yet, there are obviously lots of people who enjoy using the site. Many of my coworkers are on twitter and sing its praises. There’s a thriving and vital information network here, especially in our field. And the class has made particular good use of the #eme tag to connect and interact with each other.
So where’s the truth? Is Twitter like a public space, somewhere there are both good and bad people, and you need to know where to go to avoid getting into trouble?
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that the media will play up the negative aspects of Twitter, as opposed to the more beneficial uses. (Mean Celebrity Tweets, anyone?)
We have to go into public spaces- we don’t have to use twitter. But you can say that about anything.
https://www.pewinternet.org/2019/04/24/sizing-up-twitter-users/
This is a interesting article that reports that Twitter is not representative of the genreal population. Most interestingly, 80% of tweets are generated by only 10% of Twitter users. That’s kind of astounding, really. If you posit that most tweets are toxic (which I don’t, but just for the sake of this argument), then that means that most of the toxic tweets are being posted by a minority of twitter users. But that doens’t really matter, because they are still composing the majority of what is known and able to be found on Twitter!
After 2016, I think society in general took a closer look at how pervasive and influential social media is. What was once sort of dismissed as a sometimes addictive obsession that was ultimately meaningless demonstrated how powerful it was, to really influence real life events.
I see lots of posts and thoughts to the effect that social media has ruined us, has affected society for the worse. I think that is true, but I don’t think it’s because of social media itself- I think it’s because the companies behind these sites aren’t doing their due diligence to monitor and safeguard other users. It really seems like they don’t give a damn about their bad reputation, and that’s a shame. Social media has so much potential, but as with anything it needs to be used responsibly.
Hi Charles!
ReplyDeleteI agree with your thought! and it is interesting that most of the toxic tweets are being posted by a minority of twitter users!!
I think the time to show the power of social media is when they are related to the real life.
As you said, the companies should act more for social values rather than their profits. Thank you for sharing your thoughts!:)
Those are interesting stats there! I have to say, I am not familiar with many of the "toxic" posts discussed here. I wonder if it is due to who I follow and who follows me, hence my network and the industry we are in? I imagine certain groups of users of social media in general have more of a tendency to be more toxic at times because they can hide behind their computer screen and say things they probably wouldn't in person. I also think that means that as social media users, we need to be savvy to avoid and respectful maneuver those situations. In person, we have to deal with idiots occasionally now we need to educate ourselves how to do so (and avoid them) while interacting online now as well.
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