Skip to main content

The Trap That Is Twitter

I can no longer believe that the people who run and work and make decisions about Twitter are ignorant, or misguided. At this point the only explanation is that they are deliberately fomenting abuse and division within the userbase as a tactic. Were it not for my friends and professional connections, I'd quit twitter in a heartbeat. If I could find another way to connect with those whom I enjoy connecting with, I would, because that is the only thing that keeps me here. It's not clear to me how much longer that will be true. It's become exceedingly clear to me that Twitter is toxic along several different axes, and I'm rapidly getting to the point where the toxicity outweighs the positive interactions. Which is a shame. The original thing that drew me to Twitter was the ability to connect with a wildly diverse number of voices, some of which I knew, some of which I admired, and many of which I envied in one way or another. Then, later, I became exceedingly conscious of the biases of my view of the world, and actively attempted to diversify my consumption, by unfollowing cis white dudes and actively seeking out women, non-cis people, and black and brown folk (occasionally in combination). It's probably both naive and gobsmackingly simple to say that it helped me to understand my own place of privilege and power; it certainly radicalized me towards a much more extreme Leftist position than even my Radical Unionist upbringing started me with.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, In The Beforetimes, Twitter seemed like a good tool. But like everything that exists in Capitalism, the drive to monetize it has destroyed it as a useful tool.

So I guess what's going to happen is that I'm going to spend a lot more time trying to get regular posts on this blog, and I'm going to work hard to get the people I like and enjoy to connect with me via other means (I have a Discord! You should join it! Comment or email me for an invite!), and mostly, I'm going to try and avoid being on Twitter as much as I possibly can. I was able to wean myself off Facebook, so here's hoping I can do the same thing with Twitter.

I have never missed Google Plus more than I do right now, for the record.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Experience of Diversity (and the blindness of privilege)

Last year I made a vow to myself that I would only read books written by authors who were not straight white men. By and large, with two explicit exceptions, I was successful in my goal. And I learned a bunch of things. The first (and most important) thing I learned is that my reading habits were already moderately diverse; I made a list of ten of my favourite authors and nine of them were women, so I didn't really have to give up on anyone that I was particularly invested in. The second thing I learned was that my "historical read" list is actually pretty white/straight/male, though; I often go back and read a book again for comfort's sake, to go over familiar territory and comfortable writing and try and find something new or at least interesting. That means I haven't been doing a bunch of rereading and that led to... The third thing I learned, which is there are a LOT of non-cishetwhitemale writers in SF, both historically and especially currently. Just l...
Post a Comment
Read more

Organizing And You: Lessons from Labor History

    I made a joke on Twitter a while ago: Do I need to post the Thomas M Comeau Organizing Principles again? https://t.co/QQIrJ9Sd3i — Jerome Comeau says Defund The Police (@Heronymus) July 15, 2021 and it recently came back up because a member of my family got their first union job and was like "every job should be offering these sorts of benefits" and so I went ahead and wrote down what I remember of what my dad told me. My father had many jobs, but his profession was basically a labor union organizer, and he talked a lot about the bedrock foundation items needed to be serious about organizing collective action. Here's what I remember.    The Thomas M. Comeau Principles of Organizing -- a fundamental list for finding and building worker solidarity from 50 years of Union Involvement. This list is not ranked; all of the principles stated herein are coequal in their importance. Numbering is a rhetorical choice, not a valuation. 1) Be good at your job. Even in...
Post a Comment
Read more

So that happened.

I couldn't resist, and didn't really want to. So I bought an iPad. First Gen, but they're on significant sale right now, so I can use this one until July or august, when I'll buy an iPad2 and give this one to someone else. I named it "conspicuous consumption" because it seemed like truth in advertising. FYI, this blog post is coming from inside the tablet!
2 comments
Read more