The battles so viciously fought in this digital gladiatorial arena have a nasty habit of spilling over into ‘real life’
Lately, I’ve expended a lot of mental energy considering Twitter. If this sounds like a sad state of affairs, don’t worry – I’m aware. But it’s preferable to my previous approach, which was a greedy embrace of everything the platform had to offer with no thought as to what exactly it was reaping from me in return, beyond data. While the little bird app has certainly enriched my life in numerous ways, frankly, its impact terrifies me now.
There is a certain recognition that online networking spaces such as Facebook, YouTube and Reddit can actively facilitate the development of extreme, obsessive views. Yet Twitter does not seem subject to the same analysis. In the mainstream, it appears to be viewed as a space where people with existing oppositional, fixed positions coalesce and shout at each other, rather than a furnace where those unyielding stances are forged in the first place.
Moya Lothian-McLean is a journalist who writes about politics and digital culture
