Once upon a time, I remember an era in where there were no smart phones to play with during social awkwardness; a time where you used to be able to recite a collection of your family and closest friends' numbers; a time when you didn't have to use the internet to check anything because it didn't seem a necessity; a time where schools used to debate whether the internet was better than reading books; a time when you would lose touch with friends and think that was the end of that; but now it seems times have changed.
As you're probably aware, Twitter has been reported as being blocked in Turkey. I, myself, have just got back into using Twitter again, and it seems like one of those I-am-not-sure-what-word-to-use that cannot be avoided. Even if you're not on Twitter, you know about it. If you're in journalism, PR, politics, and media; it seems like the unwritten rule is to have Twitter.
It makes me cringe how chummy and poetical people try to be on there. In reality if you were to go up to someone in a cafe and impress them with your chat, you might possibly be met with a half smile and an eyebrow raise pose. But maybe that's the beauty of Twitter; it can bring the friendliness out of people.
Tweeting can feel like shouting out loud to yourself in an empty room with a crowd of diners next door being too engaged in their own noise to take notice of your own. Even if you tweeted the best tweet known to mankind, you could still get ignored. Sometimes I feel like calling out to everyone, "Nobody cares about us, they only care about themselves on there and their own followers, this niceness is all fake!!!!".
Yes, it can be great to find out all the latest up to date court news before it hits the papers, and why that road is closed off two blocks away from your home, but do we really want this? I see pictures posted up of random people in the street taken by others with comments like, "What is he wearing?". It feels like perhaps it is no longer safe for us to have a conversation in a sandwich bar about that one night stand and to run in our PJs to the Co-op because we could now all be in danger of being snapped or talked about. Do we really want to check into places and give up to date commentary on our whereabouts? You could be in the middle of a chat up in a bar when one of your followers could turn up there and now, or later on and destroy it all for you! And whilst one of your mates is tweeting about lying on the beach in the Bahamas, you could be lying on a lilo in a swimming pool in Palm Springs and feel the need to compete and tweet that because if you don't show off about all the cool things going on in your life, you might miss out on worthwhile self promotion and on others thinking you're cool or even people thinking you cease to exist. I breathe again.
I see people posting mundane tweets about their lives. Do we honestly care if Joe has just eaten a cheeseburger with ketchup and fries on the side? It is worrying how so many people post about their most mundane actions and think others must care. It is as if we have been hypnotized to want to tell the world about our each and every move. And if we all sit down and think for a moment, is that what we really want? Do we really want the world to know what we like doing on a Friday night [1], where we have Sunday brunch [2], where our cousins live etc.? It is comical how so many of us are so anxious about sharing intimate details of our lives in regular everyday conversation but when it comes to the internet we're too ready to spill. It is embarrassing how so many celebrities are on there and are enjoying having their egos massaged - nothing wrong with that but I find the whole thing can be patronizing.
With all the problems that Twitter can cause from the most controversial on the big wide world scale to trolls bullying to a friend spreading gossip, does it really matter if Twitter is blocked? Right now, it does really seem like Twitter is the hottest social network going, but how long will that last? If we really want to tell the world about our lives, can't we just get a blog? What social network will the celebs flock to next? Only time will tell.