Seriously.
This single website of 140-character bullshit is literally the erosion of intellect. This is a reinforcement of the short-attention-span/soundbite/meme culture that is swallowing critical thinking whole. I’m not even going to bother with an extended analysis Donald Chump’s messianic bullshit con job of saving Carrier, or the “progressives” who took the bait and are claiming “Why didn’t the Democrats think of that?” (Because the Democrats know the exploitation of labor when they see it, hence why Unions and the Democratic Party have a tendency to work together. No, I’m not impressed by the opportunity to work a part-time job for $7.50/hr with no benefits, or the person who “brings jobs back” by using that as a negotiating tactic.)
There is no deep intellectual thought to be had in 140 characters alone. There is no rational discourse that can occur on Twitter itself. Just a drive-by obnoxious statements. If one is clever, one can trigger deeper thought by stating just the premise of an argument, but the real skill of brevity is one that is reserved for true wisdom. This is one reason why we quote heroic and iconic historical figures, perhaps to a fault as it can sometimes present the fallacy of appealing to false authority. True intellectuals have a knack of finding ways to embody truly complex ideas with a simple statement. Otherwise, Twitter and its counterparts are nothing but a sea of apparent truths being passed around one sentence at a time by rank amateurs that aren’t remotely bastions of logical thought.
I can think of analogy after analogy, but the best one is that Twitter is nothing more than headlines with no story. These days, people are more than happy to “TLDR” everything they see. The prevailing attitude is “Either you satisfy my need for instant gratification and get right to the point, or why are you even talking?” This doesn’t promote skepticism, but polarization by simply allowing a person’s bias to reinforce itself.
This is the end result of the “Headline only” culture, morphed into the “Soundbite” culture, morphed into the “Meme” culture. But what I really hate is that the battle ahead cannot be fought without mastering bite size mass psychology. I’d throw Facebook under the bus as well, but at least they abandoned the 140 character limit. If you feel like posting a blogs-worth of reading to your status update, you are free to do so. That to me is a vast improvement on the ability to critically analyze and present a well-crafted argument, and engage in discussion. If you want to, you can treat your facebook profile as your own private DKos.
There exists such a thing as influence. This is why capitalists have championed the broadcast system and social tool of the internet so that a 30-second advertisement or a 480x600 pixel graphic can make you choose Purina brand over Iams or Pedigree.
But we have led ourselves to believe that it is impossible to change a person’s mind with a facebook post. If a 30-second ad can make you want a Coke, or to take a vacation in Spain, then a facebook post can indeed influence the way people think based on what their friends say. Influence is real, and to assume that no one will change their behavior based on what people say anywhere is nonsense.
Influence is why Twitter even came into existence in the first place. Influence and an endless stream of new information is why Twitter is so popular. It is also a social free-for-all where corporations can buy advertising space. And what do they do with this ad space? Figure out ways to influence your consumption habits with an advertisement. If there were no such thing as influence, no one would spend money on advertising. Capitalists derive invaluable benefits from social media and the internet at large. If there were no such thing as influence, then they wouldn’t spend billions each year in advertising.
So if that adspace can influence our behavior, so can each mindless, poorly informed tweet we read. These 140-character brainfarts reinforce the human instinct of jumping to conclusions. With one tweet, the bulk of critical information is left to the imagination, and biases are hugely amplified in this system.
The worst part of all is that this shallow form of engagement is wholly necessary if the left wing wants to keep its head above water, let alone survive. In the world of the future, brevity is king, and taking that for granted is even worse. I will write a more substantive diary with references to the psychology of how this crap works for analysis in the comments. But for now, I would like to see if anyone cares to discuss this particular erosion of society. Critical thinking is dead, and from where I’m standing, Twitter is literally at the epicenter of the graveyard of logic.