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| Pic courtesy Parkeschampionpost |
I have recently reactivated my long dormant Twitter account - purely out of boredom.
I set it up originally as an opportunity to lurk, but have begun posting again. I must be bored...
Twitter is, after all, a sewer, but can occasionally be useful to capture breaking news.
Being the contrarian that I am, I follow people whom on the whole disagree with most of my opinions, which is apparently unusual, given the suggestions Twitter frequently makes about whom I should follow.
One reason for this is the possibility I might learn something. There is also the thrill of the chase in investigating and analysing the level and degree of disinformation that corrupts a great of public discourse. And occasionally you are exposed, via the platform, to clever and ascerbic verbal gems.
There aren't, incidentally, many of these.
It also exposes also me to the whole gamut of conspiracy theorists, peddlers of hate, and what my father used to call "mug lairs".
If we follow only those we agree with, the whole thing becomes a vast echo chamber. This, of course, is irrelevant as far as the platform is concerned, but it has far reaching implications for the shaping of public opinion.
Twitter also favours Right-leaning opinion, which helps to explain why Trump used it so effectively, and the wailing and gnashing of teeth that we saw from that cohort when he was deplatformed.
Occasionally I get blocked, which is usually a sign that the blocker is feeling the heat.
The behaviour of the algorithms that shape the platform also shapes information sharing and opinion. Twitter operates like a very efficient Kelpie, rounding people up on the basis of their biases and herding them together.
This has the unfortunate effect of confirming and solidifying those biases. That phenomenon is in no small way a contributing element to the current toxic divisive state of American politics.
And, make no mistake, we are heading in exactly the same direction in this country.
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