Twitter

My New Year’s resolution for 2021 was to set up an account on Twitter. I report I did so on 6 January 2021.

I confess to have had ambitions to become an influencer for years. In recent months they have given way to an unhealthy inclination to root out all the evil in the world and a predilection to engage in discussions with people and institutions followed by thousands of Twitter users. I also wanted to vent my anger with current goings-on, so that my voice became audible.

Just like with blogging, I am constrained by my profession. Several weeks ago a CEO of a large company being a client of my employer made a nasty remark on my profile picture on facebook. The chap is known for his pro-life views, while my profile picture reflected my pro-choice stance. I kindly rebutted his conversation starter by underlining my private views were not the subject of our business call. It worked and the conversation had absolutely no echoes in the organisation, yet reminded me I ought to preserve my anonymity.

After a weeks of presence on Twitter, I have the following observations:
- quickness of reaction does matter – if you want to reply wittily to someone’s tweet, you have less than one minute to invent, type and publish it; otherwise someone else will come up with the same thought,
- the application is a veritable time-suck,
- reputable users with thousands of followers just send tweets and let things drift, i.e. do not engage in discussions in comment threads to their tweets,
- wise people usually do not spend time online sharing their wisdom, but cretins have plenty of time and energy to show off their stupidity.

Tweeter has reminded me of an old Polish adage: Nie dyskutuj z idiotą. Najpierw sprowadzi dyskusję do swojego poziomu, a potem pokona doświadczeniem. Or the meme to the right. It also brought back memories of clashes with fellows of Toyah on his blog a decade ago. Ten years have passed but the rhetoric of trolls has not evolved much.

In my futile mission to save the world I wished to crack down on the most harmful group of trolls quite numerous these days, i.e. anti-vaxxers. Predictably, it just ended up with dead-end polemics with fools. I wonder who has a vested interest in widespread activity in anti-vaccination campaigning. The answer that it could be tracked down to Russia does not hold water, as Russians have produced their own vaccine, therefore painting the picture of death-causing vaccines makes no sense.

The eye-popping activity of anti-vaxxers has also prompted me to rethink my views of freedom of speech and censorship. Does somebody who espouses crossing an intersection on red light, claims drunk-driving is ok or praises benefits of domestic violence in fostering family relationships deserve to be deprived of their right to share their views? Should we count on collective wisdom of people who ought to recognise scribble put out by a downright idiot or should be ban harmful content on the Internet?

Moreover, I grow on an idea of giving up social media entirely. Just to evade loads of rubbsih out there and to save my nerves which I can't help fraying. 

By the way, it has been nearly 12 years since my first post on the blog...