Twitter Becomes Abusive, And Talking About Credibility
I have always said that one of the best things about twitter was the fact that you can say almost anything you want about an organization, and or a person and do it with impunity. Obviously, this is going to create a lot of problems between a lot of people, but it is refreshing to see this kind of freedom of speech happening all over the place.
I think we do have to recognize that under all the Facebook likes that we may deal with on a day-to-day basis, we are still pretty negative at heart. Everybody wants to accentuate the positive, but twitter is one of those things that basically enables you to say whatever you want, and if you are like a normal person, you are probably going to do it in a negative way.
I think that is just our nature, if you give us the opportunity to bring something down, especially if it has reached lofty levels of reputation, we are going to do it, and with twitter we are going to do it in his witty away as possible.
But London’s Sunday Times had an interesting article this week talking about how some of the larger corporations are trying to hire bloggers and tweeters in order to offer positive spin on their products. Of course, I am talking about McDonald’s, which probably needs all the positive spin it can get.
The article also spoke to some of the more negative aspects of a continuous negative flow of news. A lot of people found themselves abused very heavily by other twitter users, often because of the things that they say in public. I think this does make a lot of sense, particularly with women, because we are still grappling with the idea that a woman can say whatever she wants in public.
Does that sound old-fashioned or ridiculous to you? Perhaps it does, but I think we have to recognize that it is the truth. A lot of people are getting slammed on twitter right now that maybe don’t need to be. And this is something that is not just common in Britain, but is very common in places throughout the world where twitter is being used increasingly.
Credibility
I think if there is one thing we should understand about twitter is that it is not the be-all and end-all of online expression. And, if you decide to follow certain experts or groups, you should always be thinking about what their motivations are. Is the guys website that you really like reading influenced heavily by an invisible paycheck from Adobe?
Is the guy who tells you that he really enjoys the latest McRib sandwich just a shill for McDonald’s?
On the other hand, is a buddy of yours that recently had a computer meltdown in which is hard drive failed and he had to get professional Mac hard drive recovery actually just trying to push that particular data recovery service on you?
Well, probably not the last one. But I think my point has been made. Always look for motivations behind public thoughts. Assess credibility on an individual basis and never give anyone the benefit of the doubt. It can save you a lot of time and pain.
