Somebody is trying to make money off of your anger.
I get tagged in photos on Twitter.
I’m not in the photos. Sometimes they’re not even photos, but rather graphics or drawings. They don’t even have any direct connection to me at all. Just broad issues with borderline, or over the line, offensive messages pointing the finger at an individual.
I can pretty quickly determine that the only reason I’ve been tagged is so I’ll get angry.
There are lots of GREAT reasons to get angry.
Injustices, discrimination, and general unfairness all qualify as solid reasons to get angry and to motivate you to action.
I’m happy to speak up on those issues. I’m happy to be used and to use the platform I’ve built up over the past ten years to amplify my displeasure with those issues and to call for change.
However, I’ve noticed more and more that some of these issues are manufactured… or rather, instead of an issue, there seems to be a push for me to be angry at certain… people.
You can spot them pretty easily.
Agitators or ‘Agitweeters’.
I think it’s much easier to be angry when your anger is focused on a person rather than a big broad floaty cloud-like issue. Being angry at a person makes your anger a bit more laser focused and palpable. You can really get angry and stay angry longer.
It also makes you feel like you can take much more concrete actions to ‘correct’ the issue.
If that last sentence sounds kinda scary and mob-like, it is.
Being angry at a person instead of an issue, is dangerous.
All arguments between people have physical violence as their last desperate resort.
So, why do some people want you to be angry at people instead of issues?
Easy… in the short term it makes it look like things are happening.
It’s exciting.
It’s drama.
It’s traffic.
Traffic.
This anger of yours that has been redirected from constructive conversation and action on actual issues is now being fanned into a white hot flamethrower directed at individuals who represent the heart and cause of those issues (at least that’s what you’re told).
The thinking, and I’m guessing here but I feel good about my guess, is that you’ll ‘probably’ never do anything about your pointed anger… except type about it or post some ‘sick’ memes, dude. You know, japes.
And japes translate into traffic.
And numbers.
Numbers that will somehow lure advertisers… or at least that’s the skewed hope.
That’s a dangerous gamble.
I love Twitter.
I really do.
It’s where my whole social media career was born ten years ago after a message from Disney. It’s allowed me to connect with people all over the world and interact with people far above my station.
However, it’s currently being run like a hobby rage farm with the sole owner acting like a bored king paying peasants to fight for his entertainment.
A way less funny Hank Scorpio.
What’s even more depressing is that it doesn’t have to be.
Twitter offers an opportunity to directly connect with others worldwide that no other platform offers in the same way… at least for now.
However, most Twitter users will likely have their feeds set to ‘Home’ and as a result be forced fed whatever the Twitter algorithm wants them to be fed… and that’s usually stuff that will make you angry.
Most Twitter users will have their DM’s open so they can be sent the vilest of messages meant to provoke them or, even sadder, sent by those who have been provoked into believing being angry at and threatening individuals is somehow worthwhile.
It’s quite sad.
A platform that offers direct communication between people can be whatever those people want it to be.
Civil or vile.
It’s my hope that the current sovereign of Twitter gets really bored and just leaves.
In in the meantime, if you’re on Twitter, set your your feed to ‘Latest Tweets’ (click that stars icon in the top right on mobile) and, if you can, turn off your DM’s so only those that you follow can send you private messages.
And lastly, don’t let your anger be exploited by those who just want you to be angry and stay angry for their own benefit and amusement.
As John Lydon (he’s not right all the time but he is with this) sang in Public Image Ltd’s song ‘Rise’, anger is an energy.
It has value. Don’t let someone steal it for their own purposes.
Use it wisely (John didn’t sing that but I would).
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Should be required reading before signing up to any public messaging format. Or any news organization.
Thank you