Twitter Bullying

Everyone and their Mother has had a comment on Ricky Gervais and the "Mong" debate this week. I'm not going to comment much on it here, read Richard Herring blogging on it as he puts it well. Just a couple of things from me, the first being Gervais' comment about how the meaning has changed, look it's in urban dictionary. I'm not sure if he just looked that up to support himself but what the whole thing looks like to me is a 50 year old trying to talk like he's still a teenager and still cool, which is a little pathetic. You could say any word, let's say the N word, being careful how I phrase things here, and say it means something else, then put up a definition to say it doesn't mean what you think it does, it means this. If it doesn't mean what you say to the people you were talking to then you're being offensive. Offensive can be ok in comedy if you're funny enough but in this case I don't think he was. Purely my view.

And we come to the second point here. What happened when he was challenged on the use of the word was that he RT'd the comments and then a whole load of followers decided to attack. From comments on twitter from Richard Herring today he had several thousand people attacking him for daring to query Gervais and his response about the meaning. Quite a few abusive. Which was in a way encouraged by Ricky Gervais. And that to my mind is bullying. There were other people who took it up with him, and some of them also received abuse, I heard someone on the radio yesterday who had been a victim of this as well. Just for disagreeing with someone, and saying they thought he was wrong.

This isn't something that's come out of nowhere, I've seen it happen or heard from other people I follow on twitter that it happened to them. And I don't get why people do this. They follow a celeb, fair enough I follow a few myself, but when someone disagrees with them, or says something they don't like they RT it and then an attack seems to start. I don't understand why people do this? Why go into attack another person because they disagree with something someone else said? They're generally not being abusive, in most cases although some are, and they're only making a point that isn't nasty to anyone else, but thousands can descend on them because of one comment or RT by someone else. There is general nastiness from individuals as well, but when you get a large number of people doing it, that is bullying, led by a sneering idiot usually. It mystifies me why people do this, why you start sending messages because a celeb you follow says something. Do you think you're helpful, do you think you're defending them when you attack someone else, are you being verbally abusive for a reason other than an ego thing, saying I'm defending this person, because I know them, do you think you're friend with the people you follow on twitter? Don't understand it, I really don't.

The Trouble with Twitter

I like twitter, it's a way to keep in touch with people you know in a way that doesn't involve a phone call or email, and it's easy to do. I spend more time talking to people I've never met than the ones I actually know on there but the idea is still the same. If you follow the right people you can get different views on the things that are happening to what is reported, you have to filter it, but you have to do that with TV news anyway, and you can get a more balanced view from people who are actually there, or concerned with or about what is happening. You can get an idea of who to trust and who talks shite easily enough if you look at it, which isn't possible when you have only one point of view on your TV or in your newspapers. The BBC are to scared of appearing unbalanced or leaning to one particular view that they've lost it, Sky will do what their shareholders tell them, they will be neutral but things may get subtly downgraded or ignored. Newspapers have their own agendas and are free to do that as well. Other sources of news are better, but they don't tell you everything.

You can follow people who are interested in the same subjects you are, you can see what some famous person is doing, or had for lunch in the really boring tweets, you can just randomly follow a bunch of people and get some very weird things happening on your timeline, my favourite being when the journalist Johann Hari was interviewing Stephen Fry via twitter for reasons I can't remember and someone tweeted right in the middle of a serious point asking about how to cook sausages. Well I found it funny anyway. But you can see what other people think on issues you care about, you can lock yourself into people similar to you or get a broader view by following people you don't agree with and work out the truth, or the reality at least. These are some reasons I like twitter.

But there are a few things that have been getting on my nerves when going through tweets recently, and they're getting worse. Or seem to be. Some are just basically annoying, some are pathetic behaviour, some may just be annoying me but I don't know. One that really gets me is the Follow for Follow shite, or people who expect a follow back automatically. If you look interesting, funny, or someone I might like i'll follow you, if you don't I won't. Sounds fairly simple, but some people think of it as keeping score, like that old T-shirt slogan - He who dies with the most toys Wins. Well, he or she who reaches the most followers will be Lady Gaga, or someone like that, it's nice to read new people but it isn't compulsory, and you can lose out if you only follow other people who follow you. If you get to 50,000 or whatever then ok, but if you're following 50,000 as well you're not reading much that's going through, you'll maybe see the odd tweet from most of them, and where is the point of that? I follow just over 300 people on twitter, and can keep up generally if I check in a few times during a day. But many more than that and it's pointless, you're not seeing what people are genuinely saying, even if you live on your twitter app, so why bother. It's just stupid as far as I'm concerned. I'd rather read as much as possible of what the people I follow tweet, rather than 1% of it.

The RT me because you're my favourite actor/doctor/singer people. Why? You're not asking for anything, there's no cause or charity your promoting, you're not saying anything remotely interesting, why ask for an RT with nothing to say? And why do some celebs actually RT them? It's just a waste of everyones time, another brain cell gives up in everybody who has wasted their time reading the tweet, which may not be much but cumulatively it's very annoying. Is it just a game some people are playing? To what end and to what rules. Another thing I don't get, if you're going to talk to someone, actually say something don't just make some noise. Which is what doing that is, it's like kids attention seeking. Probably is in some cases, mental age of about 4 in some people who do it probably, and I do wish they'd stop.

And then we come to the trolls, been around since the days of usenet, (on usenet, is it just me who reads about the AFP news agency and thinks of Alt.Fan.Pratchett, a news group I used to lurk in a bit? Probably). They haven't really evolved much, but do seem to just take a target, say something offensive and then wait for people to abuse them, which is their oxygen. And why do some people draw attention to them? There are a couple of famous people who just RT them and then try to get people to abuse them, or encourage it at least - pointless as far as I can see. I think ignore them until the go away. Or block if needed, starve them of attention, they're toddlers on speed, saying I need attention and will scream until I get it. It's pathetic and annoying. Also you get the aggressive unfollowers who will @ those who they're unfollowing to tell them how boring/stupid/pointless they are. Why? Just unfollow, it makes you look petty and stupid to announce it, and really up yourself to announce it directly to the person you're unfollowing. They aren't there to entertain you and you alone, so you just wind up looking pathetic.

Those are the troubles on twitter, but the good points outweigh the bad I think, most of the time anyway. I'm sure there will be other things that annoy other people, and I'll find more that annoy me, but I've also got somewhere to talk at people, or sometimes to them, and not just mutter insanely to myself. Although I could be doing that of course, and no-one reading anything I put there, but I feel I'm not talking to myself, and that's important.

Don't vote twitter

Amanda Platell says the idiots who use twitter should be banned from voting. Reactionary much are we? The internet has changed how people think, but she would rather we all stayed in our own boxes and became sheep following "Call me Dave" Cameron into power. I use twitter, www.twitter.com/innesmacleod if you're interested, and I can think for myself. The people in power don't get the net, and probably won't for about 10 years if you go on how it usually is, but you have to accept that it has changed the world. Yes it can be used to watch porn if that's all you're looking for, but there is so much more to the communication if you use it, let Rebecca Joyce, www.twitter.com/bubblybex, tell you about #kickcancer and then tell me it's a bad thing. Positivity is POWER. Thinking for yourself is too, everyone should try it. It has shrunk the world, is that a bad thing? maybe in some ways, but it leads us to become better, and think for ourselves. This is a good thing. Always remember that.