Twitter is the most remarkable
invention, for never before has there been a more efficient thought
catalogue. Journal and diary pages, are so long and empty that they
appear daunting, and your Facebook friends would unfriend you if you
shared every thought you had as it occurred to you. But Twitter is just
right. On Twitter you can be anything and anyone. You can be
Chimamanda’s forehead or the Desmond Elliot’s crooked tooth. You can be
depressed, angry or hilarious. And you can be certain that whatever kind
of tweeter you are, you will find your tweetfam.
While all of that is certainly
delightful, it seems to me that the bulk of us have failed to adapt
principles that are widely thought to be common sense in the modern day
and age to our online proclivities. Both good sense and society speak
out most fervently against turning our mouths into miniature caricatures
of Usain Bolt. We have failed to transfer this logic to our fingers.
Several times a day, we flock to Twitter
to share details of our lives and discuss trending topics like
Beyonce’s alleged second pregnancy. E! Online say that their sources
have confirmed that the King and Queen of all bees is pregnant, but last
weekend she shared a sharp message on her Instagram that spoke out against all rumour millers and bee haters.
We strive for the RTs, and the followers
with as much verve as a social media specialist who does the same thing
for a living. We tweet certain things for laughs, and we whet our wits
thinking up barbs to throw at celebrities and other complete strangers.
It has been said that the walls have ears, and that we ought to be
careful what we say for we never know who is listening. On Twitter, I’ll
tell you who’s listening, the whole world.
A week and a bit ago, ms_kasharna1
commented on one of Rihanna’s instagram pictures. Ordinarily, this
wouldn’t be remotely worthy of a mention anywhere, except that she wrote
that Rihanna’s family looked retarded because of drug and alcohol
consumption and this led Rihanna to stitch a picture od ms_kasharna1 to
that of a goat, and post it on Instagram, and Twitter. The poor girl was
so overwhelmed by the electronic assault of Rihanna’s navy that she had
no choice but to protect her Twitter account and delete every picture
from her Instagram. While I think that Rihanna should have refrained
from displaying such a remarkable level of immaturity and cattiness, I
also believe that ms_kasharna1 should not have commented if she did not
consider the slight possibility that there might be retaliation.
Furthermore, the inclusion of
unprotected tweets is now standard, journalistic practice. This means
that racist, homophobic, anti-semitic, and hateful tweets that
demonstrate a generous portion of bigotry are fair game to everyone and
anyone. What’s worse, you cannot deny them, or state that they are mere
allegations or unproven accusations. They are written confessions,
immediately accessible to anyone with an internet connection.
As long as @OdumotaHasABigHead and
@ShineShineBoboForTheLadies can be attributed to you, you can and may
very well be held accountable for every tweet or picture that comes out
of them. As such, it is infinitely better for you to air the worst of
your opinions at home than it is for you to tweet them. If you would not
be proud of anything you write online if it were to be exposed on a
public platform, then you must refrain from posting it, for chances are
that it might.
Photo Credit: buzzedition.com
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