Twitter Abuse

Everybody has stories like this to tell. It really isn't special, and as far as abuse on Social Media goes, it probably was of the more harmless variety. Well, definitely - because murder and rape threats didn't come into it by any stretch.

But just because you didn't get threatened with rape...does that already make it harmless? Did you therefore get away lightly? Why should it not be possible to contradict somebody about a reading of an article in The Guardian of all places? Why should it not be permissable to defend the author of an article against blatantly absurd readings? Why should one not be allowed to point out what the author "really" meant, especially when it's done in a polite and non-offensive way? Is that already showing  too much female uppityness when dealing with a twitter-male? A twitter-male who has a lot of like-minded mates whom he is ready and willing to summon as back-up via copious RT's: "Look at 'er - getting above 'erself, having an opinion when I expressly stated what's what!"

I'm no shrinking violet on twitter, I don't withdraw into my mousehole just because some fat, bald uneducated male tells me to do so. On twitter, you learn to deal with people who think just because they're invisble, they can dish it out. And in my experience, the best thing is to look those people squarely in the eye and hit back. As soon as they feel your fear all hell breaks lose. Because, make no mistake  those people are without exception pathetic, deficient men (yes, men) with an inferiority complex. On Social Media they feel empowered, they feel nobody can beat them (unlike their daily experiences in real life where they probably have to kowtow, buckle and scrape).

So, it isn't as if I was dumbfounded by this particular reaction, not as if I didn't have my defences in place. I hit back, of course I did. With the sort of thin sneer which drives men like that into paroxysms of fury. They would kill you then if they were physically there. But they're not.

So far, so bad. But it made me think: Is it all really worth it? Is it worth my time defending freelance Guardian writers at the cost of getting abuse form a totally irrelevant person whom I don't know and will (fortunately) never meet? Why bother? Why tweet? I don't tend to get abuse in my daily life, I don't have encounters with pond life telling me off, telling me what's what. So...why go online to meet abusers, clueless, hapless human beings with a huge rage, a sense of entitlement and an axe to grind?

I don't know, but I don't think it's fundamentally a good idea. I will have to think about it. But it definitely can't carry on like that.

Good-Bye to All That (Social Media)?

I've been on twitter now for four years, and when I joined it didn't feel all that new. I was aware of it long before I decided to sign up. So as an old hand it's perhaps not surprising that I have a slightly different perspective from people who only started out on it recently.

You go through phases, and with Social Media there are always phases, and fads, and moods... just as, I suppose there are in real life. Only you can act on them faster. The wordless "Unfollow" button is something that is (fortunately? sadly?) lacking in real life relationships. But even accepting the fact that things change and have their own dynamics, I often feel that I've come to the end of the line with Social Media. I can safely say there won't be any more surprises left (other than the radical monetization of a site). It could go its merry way for another 4 or 40 years, Twitter settling into an ever more boring routine of links posted, RTs received, hashtags followed, people followed and unfollowed and so on and so on. Facebook? I left that a year ago: Cat photos, baby photos, interspersed with un-targeted ads. Old school friends, now unrecognisable, inviting you to play farm games...

So what have I learned, and why am I now less than enthusiastic about Social Media in general? I've learned that Social Media is a great enhancer of things. Suddenly you're in touch with all those people! Having conversations about...well whatever floats your boat, really. SEO? Translation? Sex in dungeons? It's all there (The last item I can't be sure about, actually). Only a month ago I remember having a conversation about Hugo von Hofmannsthal's poetry just before midnight on a Wednesday.These things don't happen all that often in real life. But "enhancement" is the operative word. There is no essence to it. No substance, no core.There is confirmation, entertainment (sometimes), there is a lot of redundancy and routine. And never anything solid, anything you can hang onto.

Social Media is inconsequential. It goes on for ever - if you let it -but nothing will ever change on account of it. Whatever you thought you might get out of it (and I'm talking about the long run, not your giddy first year) - you won't. It won't enliven your life, it won't sell you more copies of your oft-rejected and now self-published e-book, it won't put you in touch with Justin Bieber, it won't launch your model career, and if you're a company it won't sell you more products, despite what all those studies may say - they are there for a reason, after all: To get more companies in on the social media act.   

Of course there are good things happening there - speaking for myself, I backed a very worthy cause for years, and brought it to a satisfactory end, I unmasked a spy, I won books and competitions, got to know (and unknow) fabulous people and resurrected old contacts. Sure.

But Social Media (whatever your favourite site is) will carry on and on and on, like the next Sudoku puzzle, and the next crossword. And that's fine, as long as you're aware of it, and don't expect anything else.

No Talking, Please! Germans on Twitter

I've written about the differences in intercultural social media usage before (interculturalmusings.blogspot.com/2011/09/intercultural-differences-in-social.html) but a recent news headline that Twitter is growing exponentially in Germany leads me to dwell on the subject a bit more.

So after years and years of saying "Twitter - clearly overrated" and "That won't last" (their favourite standard put-downs to any new development) they've finally tagged onto the (somewhat spurious) idea that being on Twitter gives you social kudos, makes your "trändy", and lets you show off amongst your peer group.

I've been observing German twitterers for quite some time now - and my verdict is stark: They just don't know to to deal with Social Media. They excell at Foursquare, they try any trick in the book to up their Klout score, they like having masses of followers (and never mind that they're all trade related or want to sell an e-book). It's numbers and facts that count in Germany. My Klout score is..., I ousted xx as mayor... I bought a new iphoen XS2YZ -that's the Social Media currency that Gemans understand.

What they fundamentally do not see and get is the obvious (another characteristic of Germans in my experience - not seeing the wood for the trees), namely that Social Media is about communication.

Communication/conversation is a dark hole in German culture. For Germans, talking first and foremost means conveying information. And from that starting point, it isn't very far to "showing off with information which I 've got and you haven't". Conversation as a bonding agent in any form of interpersonal encounter is literally a non-starter in Germany. (If you've ever been to an awkward German office party where people have no problem with facing one another without saying a word for, oooh half an hour, you'll kow what I mean.)

Even the word "Konversation" has an entirely negative connotation in German, meaning "talking for the sake of it, not genuine". Talking, exchanging ideas, witty, light-hearted conversation is just simply not their forte.

At the moment, all kinds of articles on "The Purpose of Twitter", "Twitter to Up your Career Prospects", "Should Politicians be on Twitter" etc. abound - but the simple insight that Social Media means linking up to people conversationally, I fear, will for ever escape Germans.

For more information on the Art of Conversation, have a look at my book: Animated Conversations. Pfaffenweiler 1992.