Recently one of my favorite authors, Jeff VanderMeer (he wrote Annihilation) is someone I follow on Facebook. He is a sort of dry humor that regularly makes me laugh. He uses social media extensively to discuss causes that he cares about, talk about his book and movie, and random comments. It's interesting that his posts talk about the two sides of Twitter.
The Bad...
Twitter can lead to a group think like mindset with some disturbing lack of morality. Jeff discusses Twitter encouraging him to move a candle closer to someone who was leaning into his table while out to dinner. Twitter is a giant rabbit hole that people use the anonymity of the internet to say or do nasty things. Looking to justify a really bad behavior? There is an entire dark web and multiple support groups to jump on it. People will say terrible things to each other they would never say in person.
The Good...
On the flip side of the coin, Twitter can connect people to things they would never run into. Jeff twitted support for a relatively unknown author. This created a significant amount of interest in the author and led a publisher to look deeper into her work. Jeff also tries to use all social media platforms to bring awareness to his many causes, such as animal cruelty.
Twitter and the internet as a whole can be a very dark place. It can be a city with no lights on being looted by mobs, or it can be a never ending library with an entire population of helpful librarians. Twitter is what you make of it.
I would definitely agree with you that the internet as a whole can be a very dark place. I think it can also be a very easy way for people to bully others, which is terrible and it is sad that people use it this way. So many times I see posts on Facebook and there can be quite a few people who have meaningful and polite posts and others who have terrible posts and bully others. I think you said it correct when you also said that Twitter is what you make of it, just like Facebook. If you utilize Facebook to bash people and other things that the internet and Social Media become a black hole. If you utilize them in a good way and for meaningful and useful things then Social Media is very beneficial.
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