Still think the net benefit outweighs the downsides but it’s certainly not all positive. Twitter has given a voice to the people and the transparency it provides as crowd sourced news is amazing.
It also gives people like Jaden McNeil a large following instead of being a social outcast.
Yeah, and let's people who hate jaden stew and hate read and get really angry. And it let's people who would otherwise be on the fence about becoming "radicalized" (for lack of a better term) be subject to his influence. I don't think any of that is constructive.
I think we were better off when you had to go way out of your way to find really horrible stuff.
Like I said, there's a lot of good things social media has done (i.e. bring all of us together here!), but humanity hasn't ever had this phenomenon where everyone can read/watch everything happening everywhere. Maybe it turns out to be a good thing, but in my view it's a thing our brains/emotions aren't really equipped to handle in a positive way, on the whole.
So true. I first had experience with twitter when I had gone back to Boston to see Royals
@ Red Sox at Fenway with some bros. It was the day after the marathon bombing and there was a twitter account that had a police scanner and reported the lock down and bomber pursuit in real time. I was reading tweets from this account (outloud to my friends as we sheltered in place) about the MIT shooting/carjacking, pursuit into Watertown and the final standoff much, much faster than the news was reporting it. I was blown away.
After that, the experience to read while I watched sporting events or major world events via twitter was transformative. I still follow Ari Fleischer who on the anniversary of 9/11 he real time tweets what he went through with Bush in Florida and beyond that day. Quotes like "Mr. President, we are at war" while Bush is reading the goat book are amazing and a real benefit to those of us who care
And now, it is still great for those things. Tweeting during a cats game is fun and you can vent and complain and cheer and lots of people you've never met are liking and sharing your feelings.
But, the dark side of it is real, it's lame and at it's worst very bad.
Would be fine giving it up. but Dlew is nails, it is approaching a net negative for the general mental ramifications on a lot of its users.
