The puritan mindset of #twittersilence and #takebacktwitter

I never understood the point of #twittersilence or #takebacktwitter.

Is this what activism had become? A game of being of constant shut off, of being a tortoise in a shell. Rather than fight with the power of the pen you choose to close yourself.  

Also,  »Take back Twitter »? Take back Twitter from what, was Twitter really better a few years ago at the start? Was Twitter better when only a few geeks were connected or when Facebook was only for students in a few select universities?

Only a few centuries ago, Puritans and other religious zealous had the same paternalistic mindset. We don’t like something? We should ban it or  »take it back » to a magical yesterday where everything was supposedly better and more righteous.

Social media is like life. Almost everybody have access to it, and with some downsides, there is some amazing things that could be done with this tool.

People who had this idea and created the medium are revolutionaries in a way. Even more so than any politician or other ruler right now on Earth.

You can communicate for next to nothing with people all over the world, you can make new friendships based on common interests and in some cases, social media makes it easier to have more transparency. Media is not a one way street anymore, it’s a two way street.

Of course, there is abuse and bullying on social media, but the power of social media is that it’s all based on reputation. As much as a person could abuse somebody else, other could pass the word that some person is doing abuse. I was myself bullied myself at school, a decade before social media was popular. It’s (sadly) something which is very human.

And there is a big difference between  »trolling » and  »abuse ». The legacy media don’t seems to understand this point, trolls are sometimes no more than 21th century jesters. Of course, abuse is not acceptable, but in some cases the  »block » button is much better than any sort of Twitter police.

So, if you don’t like social media for any reason, you can get off of this medium, but please don’t be such buzzkills for people who see something good with social media. Even today, as a counter-attack against this #twittersilence meme, some had used the hashtag #inspiringwomen to talk about women who are doing something constructive with their lives. 

I love this era, it will never cease to amaze me.

Punditocracy. A good or a bad thing?

We all love to put our grain of salt in a given story. Especially with the rise of social media this had taken a whole new toll, as information is fast, easy to access and easy to share and to comment on, we tend to all become armchair pundits. Of course, social media is incredible because never in the history of humanity does information have come so fast from one part of the world to another in only a few seconds.

But with the rise of insta-actuality comes insta-punditocracy, something which is very human especially when we are at a time where almost anything is fast. I am sometimes myself an impulsive (and obsessive) person for quite a few things, but I know very well that it’s not very wise to jump to conclusions before knowing the whole story especially after a catastrophic event.

Of course, if you are a politician who wants to win votes, a pressure group who wants to mobilize resources you want to use any given event to score cheap points based on the impulsive mood to jump to conclusions. And yes, even the legacy media are using these tactics, because when you have very few information available, it’s quite easy even for an  »expert » in a given domain to give any conclusions which makes any sense.

And yet, being impulsive NOW sometimes makes you seem stupid later in time. I know it sometimes sucks to be patient, but it’s sometimes the only good thing to do have a clear idea on anything especially when it’s something complex. 

My two cents on social media

Is social media a revolution? Possibly. It makes things possible which were impossible only a few years ago cheaper, faster and better than ever before. But it also leads to new challenges.

I am not there to do the trial of social media, I use it myself like millions of people in the world, but I am preoccupied by how social media sometimes seems like a veil in a virtual world. Talking about this don’t make the positive points of social media any less positive but these are trends that a observed (and let say that social media is close to being terra incognita in term of academic studies)

This social media veil represents in a way what is wrong with social media. The first thing is that there is a whole sense of narcissism (which is a very human attribute) which makes social media like a popularity contest.

I don’t know a lot of people who would not like having the most  »like », the most followers or being RT by the most people or  »popular » people. I am myself quite pleased when somebody says positive things about me. Very few people hate this, it’s human nature.

But the problem is when this same narcissism become the antithesis of the same individuality (which is a very positive thing) of social media.

It makes people more shallow and lacking authenticity.  I am not saying that everybody who is on social media is not authentic, but living in a society more and more based on  »memes » is somewhat strange and somewhat Orwellian in scope.

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The other thing about social media is that it makes people more connected but more alone in a sort of techno bubble. It’s sometimes a good thing being alone, but being on social media usually takes a lot of your time, and this while being less connected to the physical world.

Of course, networking and connecting with people online is a good thing and helps sometimes to foster better one-on-one relations, but this whole thing sometimes is too artificial while not being good for your own ego.

To give you an example, some hostels now only put their wi-fi in common rooms, because they found that people were in a cyber-bubble. Of course, one perk of travelling is talking and socializing with different people.

Or there is this famous situation where a family of 4 is at a table this when EVERYBODY is watching something or texting someone in their smartphone/tablet instead of talking when they are all together. This trend is not new however, because when I was younger, it was the TV who did the same thing.

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The other problem with social media is that it brings a culture of short attention span  Of course, it’s great having everything that you want in a few seconds, but sometimes patience is a very important virtue.

Even if I love like many people having access to a  »buffet » of information and facts, sometimes, it’s must better to take a pause. In some cases, being patient leads to better things if you wait a little bit.

I find that this whole  »insta-everything » meme culture quite common in our era, not only in social media but also in politics, in the media and in life in general. And yes, it’s very difficult to remember everything that you see or read.

And even if I am sometimes a fan of quantity, I am also a fan of quality.

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In conclusion, possibly the best thing to do on social media is being yourself. Any individual have something that they do differently than others, and one positive thing with social media is that there are many fishes in the river to connect with.

But it’s not better when it’s becoming a thrill to be popular only for being popular and having your 30 seconds of fame.