My phase of tweeting came as a result of me running for student governance elections. This was a great way in which I could communicate with my constituency and promote my campaign, but it came at a great cost. I am not writing a critique of the actual application but rather, an honest reflection of my experiences using it. Firstly, the simplicity of the app blocked me from unpacking my nuanced views, secondly, I started to latch onto those popular trends, and thirdly, I started to fear ‘cancel culture’.
With a limited number of characters on Twitter, and the knowledge that people may not read your threads, I felt that there was no room for nuanced views or authenticity. If there is a “#______IsOverParty”, then the message is clear and all tweets which are attached to that hashtag should follow that narrative.
I almost stopped having to think for myself. If I saw that enough people agreed with what was being said, I would simply retweet it without deeply unpacking my thoughts. I am an avid reader and I spend a lot of time thinking about issues that are important to me, but the way in which I communicated on Twitter did not allow me the space to fully engage. For the most part, I am at fault for just mindlessly following the masses and I take full accountability for that. However, there are so many people out there who are doing exactly what I did and do not even realise it.
Trends come and go so quickly on the application that by the time you have written out your views in a succinct way, the interest has already died down. One minute, a major corruption story is being exposed in the country, and the next minute we are commemorating a national historical event without any transition from the former to the latter.
When I read an article or journal, I find that what I gain from it is not from the actual text, but rather from the time spent reflecting on it afterwards. There is no better way to engage with any writing, than to expand on thoughts and take the time to make meaning of it in different spheres of life. I saw that thrill start to fade away as I kept hopping from topic to topic without even checking facts, let alone contemplating on what is being written.
Tweets can also be hurtful. They can affect people in ways that are damaging. When it happened to me, I started to understand more. It is easy for people to hide behind a screen and scream the most hurtful words about you. Not because they feel such strong disdain towards you, but because Tweeting is so easy. You just sit behind a screen, put a couple of characters together and add a hashtag for the attention, or better yet, retweet someone who has said what you are thinking because then you don’t even need to write anything.
Don’t get me wrong, it is 100% acceptable to disagree with somebody. It is absolutely fine to get into a debate, and it is stimulating to do so. But, the way in which twitter ‘cancels’ people does not help anyone. I recently saw someone hashtag that a South African journalist ‘must fall’. The tweet did not mention any reasoning behind it, it just said, “I’m not sure what she did but she must fall! #____MustFall”.
Even if that person did something or said something that was unacceptable, do we have such little faith in people’s ability to grow and learn from their mistakes? Did we even listen to their side of the story or get insight to their thinking? What is worse is if you do not even know what they did wrong, but you are just retweeting because it is what other people are doing. Can we go back to having productive conversations where respect is placed at the forefront?
As a result of how easily a person can be ‘cancelled’, I started to tweet in a way that was safe. If it was not sufficiently woke, I would not say it. If it may be controversial, I steered clear from it. If it was original and prone to scrutiny, I avoided tweeting it at all costs. My tweets were influenced by fear. I feared faceless comments by people I did not know.
I have left the world of Twitter and returned to a medium that has allowed me to express myself without fear of judgement and character assassination. It has always been available to me, and now, more than ever, I am grateful to speak about what matters to me.
To my journal, I am grateful to you for listening to my whole story, contradictions and all.
Comments