Just how much of a cancer is Twitter on modern culture and discourse?

[Iwasamwillbe]

We all know about the multitudes of criticism, some justifiable, some petty, that people have of Twitter as a platform in and of itself. We all know about how the character limit creates a miasma of both pretend witticism and lack of nuanced dialogue in most Twitter conversations. We all know about these ease in which intellectual bubbles are created on Twitter. We all know about the tumorous growth of what is know called "cancel culture" on Twitter (or, more accurately, Twitter hate mobs). Etc, etc.

For example, there was this one company who made a tweet about Holocaust remembrance and the "liberation" of Auschwitz and all that blah-blah. Pretty standard corporate piety display. But this company was different. This company had sold Zyklon B to the Nazis some 75 years ago, so therefore a bunch of Twitter users got into replying towards the tweet to condemn the company for what they did in the distant past. Because apparently, the company is just as super-dee-duper evil today as they were 3/4ths of a century ago.

There are many other examples of Twitter users acting like rabid and retarded packs of monkeys, but this is ultimately an environment that Twitter, in and of itself, actively fosters, someway or somehow. What I'm wondering about now is how far this type of behavior has spread.

What I want to know is just how terrible Twitter is to modern culture and discourse, to modern society as a whole. To a person's ability to think critically.

 

[Megaroad 2012]

If there was no twitter, either this site wouldn't exist or most of the blando by the numbers hot-take-on-twitter troon threads wouldn't exist.

 

[Dom Cruise]

I mean, it's having a damn near apocalyptic effect on modern society, it's hard to underestimate the damage it is doing.

But the sad thing is is there's actually a lot of cool stuff on Twitter if you're careful and follow the right people, if only people didn't bring politics onto the site it would be fine.

 

[Twinkletard]

Twitter makes me glad the coronavirus exists

 

[NIGGER ASS PEE POOPY RAPE]

twitter would be fun if it weren't for the censorship.

 

[CMCW]

I think any mainstream influence Twitter had over culture at large was overstated and most shit that has influence in our day to day lives happens despite Social Media. If it was some sort of petri dish of society Donald Trump wouldn't have been elected, Everyone would be able to name the Asian chick in the new star wars movies, and Walmart would be playing K-Pop on their speakers.

Social media in general, has always sold the illusion of influence to the sorts of people who'd want to compete for it, Hipsters, Teenagers, Politicians, Corporations and sure they are normies but the average normie doesn't even use this much of internet, Alas i'll be damned if i ever had a conversation out in the real world about something going on on Twitter. I'll also be damned if twitter is the catalyst on changing anyone's mind on anything except whether or not they use the service. And although i know that Woke Liberals exist, I don't know a single Woke Democrat that knows what the hell i'm talking about when i bring up something like "Intersectionality" or "Richard Spencer", they literally haven't looked at policy since the first time they voted in like the 90s/00s.

We know politicians/hollywood are influenced by Twitter's Wokeness but in turn did ghostbusters reboot change people's minds that it was some kind of genius idea? Are Democrats changing peoples minds by raising their hands in support of free healthcare to illegal immigrants? Seems the only places these ideas thrive are among demographics like twitters and they die like a fish out of water when practiced on the general population. I mean they can sneak elements of their wokeness into shit and claim small token victories, but at the end of the day the general public didn't go see Star Wars for the first trans background character and tho a political party could have possibly run on a platform where their only issue was Gay Marraige and still win single-issue voters, If you don't think you can say the same for shit like "Give Illegal Immigrants Free Healthcare" Then it's prbly not the strongest position to burden your constituents with.

I know i'm referencing the bubble here but i'm thinking if you seek fake/contrived influence you get fake/contrived feedback and it seems to those looking for that they go right back into that feedback loop. But as for effecting modern society? Well they may nullify some political parties across the world for a couple elections until they realise the feedbeck is not useful. If a movie does well, or if the demos beat Trump, i don't have enough reason to think it'd be because of the internet or twitter although they would take credit for it for sure.

 

[kūhaku]

It's having a huge influence. Cancel culture mainly, but also the general idea of saying shit like "okay" "yikes" "you're literally a x" to try and end actual discussion, as opposed to real criticism. I have completely abstained from social media as a whole my entire life so I'm glad I didn't get infested with this shit.

 

[The Fool]

but also the general idea of saying shit like "okay" "yikes" "you're literally a x" to try and end actual discussion, as opposed to real criticism

I'm sure the very first conversation mankind ever had was "you from unga's tribe, me no listen to you, me throw rock instead", I don't think Twitter revolutionized it.

 

[He Who Points And Laughs]

Right after the last UK elections, many on Twitter were having a meltdown while people I know IRL were confident with the results. The following image I found to be quite accurate and explains the reality distortion field that people on Twitter suffer,

 

[Pissmaster]

I mean, it's having a damn near apocalyptic effect on modern society, it's hard to underestimate the damage it is doing.

But the sad thing is is there's actually a lot of cool stuff on Twitter if you're careful and follow the right people, if only people didn't bring politics onto the site it would be fine.

Even the few cool accounts I followed went full retard when 2016 rolled around. Twitter is like hanging out with methheads, you never know when someone's gonna suddenly flip the fuck out.

 

[The Fool]

Even the few cool accounts I followed went full retard when 2016 rolled around. Twitter is like hanging out with methheads, you never know when someone's gonna suddenly flip the fuck out.

Admittingly I do have a twitter I rarely use, locked account with zero posts, just to follow artists. I never follow anyone that speaks english, hard rule, no exceptions. Like you said, they will all self-destruct, even the seemingly cool people. I can't even follow my friends because they end up retweeting shit from idiots anyway, even if my friends and I have the same political stances. I got one friend I follow on there, the very guy who told me I could just use twitter like this and not deal with any of the dumb shit. If not for him I wouldn't have even touched the place. We both like to mock our other friends for being unable to do this very simple thing.

 

[DtoDab]

I think the most detrimental aspects of Twitter are indeed the effect of fabricated consensus, in a platform where selective moderation only gets rid of the crazies in a single side of the conversation, (while giving free reign to the other side to be openly vitriolic and hostile) it completely distorts the reality of conversation.

It generates fake numbers for fake influence on a fake conversation.

 

[He Who Points And Laughs]

I think the most detrimental aspects of Twitter are indeed the effect of fabricated consensus, in a platform where selective moderation only gets rid of the crazies in a single side of the conversation, (while giving free reign to the other side to be openly vitriolic and hostile) it completely distorts the reality of conversation.

It generates fake numbers for fake influence on a fake conversation.

Excellent point. I'd also add that the limited character count forces tweets to be less nuanced, which in turn can make others respond more emotionally. It's a rage generator by design.

 

[FadeIntoBolivian]

Of any social media platform, Twitter is easily the best one that can actually serve real world useful purposes. Facebook is only good for Messenger and Events, Instagram/Snapchat/Tiktok, all trash, Youtube as a platform for Youtubers, some of the most cancerous content known to man has come from that. Reddit makes me embarrassed to be alive and share being from the same planet as those people most of the time.

Trump's tweets from 2013-15 or so alone make it more worthwhile than any other platform, but if you're on the ground at any big event, or are looking for up to the second info on anything, Twitter is unrivalled and has helped me find out what's going on with traffic or event logistics many times before and can be a pretty powerful organizing tool.

The main downside is that a LOT of legendary accounts over time, especially in recent years, that were hilarious inevitably get banned and sometimes they don't bother coming back. Twitter in 2012 was amazing, people really were just fully wilding out on there.

 

[Feline Supremacist]

Even the few cool accounts I followed went full retard when 2016 rolled around. Twitter is like hanging out with methheads, you never know when someone's gonna suddenly flip the fuck out.

That was the only time it was actually fun though. Watching strangers meltdown in real time over trivial nonsense was hilarious. It was even better when your tweet caused the meltdown.

 

[Eto]

As someone who’s easily annoyed by Twitter, I can say that this is a good question to ask. How much influence does Twitter have in modern discourse? Can Twitter alter elections? Does Twitter reflect the majority‘s opinions?

I’m here to say no, no, and probably not. This thread reminded me of an article I read on a Pew research study, in regards to this type of question. According to this article by the Washington Post on the study, only 10% of adult Twitter users tweeted 97% of the political tweets. Small percentage, right? Well, let’s put it into numbers based off 2018’s users.

Based off The Verge’s article on Twitter users, there are 321,000,000 monthly users, and 126,000,000 daily users. Assuming they’re all adults, we get 32,100,000 users and 12,600,000 people tweeting about politics monthly and daily, respectively, if my math isn’t fucky. (I’m not suited for math, what can I say?) Monthly users are dropping, and growth in use from the US is slow.

Twitter is, in itself, an echo chamber and a bit of an online battleground on moral and political issues. With those numbers in perspective, I have to say that the effect Twitter has is small, but is amplified by the media and how much retweets a person gets. It can paint an illusion that the world has gone mad, but if you were to go out and ask about the topics Twitter users engage in IRL, people will look at you like you’re on crazy pills, unless (and this is a maybe) you’re in places like Portland, Oregon.

Hell, to use a real life example, look at Britain’s election, and how Jeremy Corbyn did. If you were to look at Twitter for that type of junk, you’d swear up and down that the Commie fucker was going to win, but you have to consider people from other countries posting support, so the numbers dwindle in terms of people voting for Corbyn’s party. It’s really misleading.

TL;DR: No, it’s just an illusion propped up by the media.

 

[Mimic]

"Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups." - George Carlin

Twitter was a lot of fun when it was simply putting random thoughts into the void. A lot of these thoughts were often humorous until people started trying too hard to force it. It was nothing more than a shitpost playground.

These days it--and all other social media--have given the smaller, insignificant masses the same power as the people in charge, if not moreso. A slip of the tongue or a poorly thought out joke can now mean financial and reputational ruin simply because some nobody got their panties in a twist.

If things continue as they are social media would definitely contribute to some form of societal ruin, and Twitter is the current hot spot. It's fitting the mascot is a bird as even the meekest of shitposters are having to walk on eggshells.

e: grammar

 

[mindlessobserver]

Tim Poole said it right. Twitter should be an irrelevant thing due to the fact that such a small percentage of the population uses it, and of the small percentage, an even smaller percentage of that uses it on the regular. The problem is a disproportionate majority of journalists, politicians and celebrities use it, and worse, are part of the infinitesimally small number of people who use it on the regular. This means the people with the biggest public megaphones rely on a sample group of around 3% of the total population of the country as a sounding board for what is going on in the world. And if that is not bad enough, Twitters moderation policy means that this 3% of the population is overwhelmingly drawn from far left revolutionaries.

 

[Rōjin]

Twitter is a fucking cesspool and it should be avoided at all costs.

 

[queerape]

The only good reason to use Twitter is all the thots went there when tumblr banned porn