A few people who read this blog/site might have noticed I had a Twitter account that shut down a few days ago (today being Jan. 17/2018). I shut it down mostly because I wanted to completely focus on my school work this term, but also because I felt like it was becoming a bad habit. I just felt I was spending too much time on there.
While there's definitely good aspects of services like Twitter (such as: communicating with other math people or communicating with people who have similar viewpoints/non-math interests or even people with differing viewpoints/interests who are willing to communicate civilly), I was starting to feel like there was more bad aspects than good.
For me, the worst of the "bad aspects" were:
(1) People who couldn't/can't communicate civilly, I recall one conversation I had with another mathematician (from New Jersey) where we debated the Euro-centricity of mathematics in terms of bias in education. While there was a lot of disagreement between us, we communicated civilly and had a good discussion, over-all, despite our differences in opinion. I don't know that either of us were really swayed from our respective initial opinions, but neither Rome nor Kimet were built in a day. But those kind of interactions are just so rare on social media. And in real life, too, unfortunately.
(2)The fact that I have a habitual personality, and I was making Twitter too much of a routine,
(3)The fact that I let myself get caught up in being occasionally uncivil with people who weren't being civil with me.,
(4) It's hard to tell who's a real person and who's a fake account/troll on there a lot of times. I'd find myself getting into conversations with some people whose ideas just seemed beyond ridiculous, and then I'd be like "Is this person just trolling under a fake identity?".
(5) I dislike the culture of panic/rage that social media in general seems to foster. I support a lot of causes (eg; racial equality, gender equality), but I feel like there's better ways to communicate my support for those causes than typing 280 characters to people who just want to type things like "EFF YOU YOU LIBTARD!" and "OH YEAH?! WELL EFF YOU YOU MAGA-TARD!" (but with worse spelling).. And then there ends up being some online bash-fest between group, which leads to some moron panic/raging to the point where he ends up purposefully running his car into protesters because he seemingly thinks that's the best was to save his race from the encroaching gun-banning black muslim gay immigrant feminist socialist dynasty that he's been deluded into thinking is real. (PS- I realize that the majority of white people think guys like him are crazy.)
(6)Kind of related to a combo of numbers 4 & 5 is racist twitter. There's layers to that, too. There's "Loud White Supremacist" twitter, obviously. I don't even mind them so much, because it's easy to say "ok, this persons getting blocked". But then there's "subtly racist twitter", and "racist white people posting as black people" twitter. Those people are harder to pin down and avoid, because you'll be having an otherwise civil interaction, and then all of a sudden they say something obviously (but maybe not blatantly) racist. That's not even getting into the issue of "Uncle Ruckus Twitter", which is almost worse than the real-life counterpart.
(7) The realization that politics (and the way it's discussed and reported) has basically become a reality show. It's all drama: "Will Donald "The Situ-esident" Trump get kicked out of the house this week?!", "Will the government get shut down this week?!", "ZOMG did you hear the shade (politician) threw at (other politician)?!", "Did you see Cory Booker flip the *** out at that hearing?!", "Which team of House-mates will win the next election challenge?!" and all of that.
Instead of being a vehicle of helping people elevate to a place where they can hone and elevate their political discourse, social media has done the opposite. Social media became the place where we lowered government and political discourse to lowest-common-denominator melodrama. And nothing is more "lowest-common-denominator melodrama" than reality tv (in my opinion). It's become something where the media spend days talking about superficial crap like whether or not "The Situ-esident" is really 230 pounds or not. Who cares? Republicans want to pass some bill that (ironically) increases the size of government, and half the commentary delves no deeper than "Mitch McConnell looks like a turtle!". It's really kind of pathetic and petty, and I don't even like McConnell very much. Social media exacerbates the malady. If something is "trending", that's what entertainers and news-people(and politicians on both sides, evidently) are going to focus on.
I obviously have a big problem with the whole "entertainment" aspect of the current political climate. I said well before the 2016 election that I categorically did NOT want an(other) entertainer as a major political figure in this country. Politics aren't supposed to be "fun" and "cool" like entertainment. It's serious. And commenting on politics is serious, too.
People should be using social media to share and compare information and experiences and philosophies and just grow all around. Instead we let it justify our ignorance and base desires. You can pretend you're being "political" by making a joke about a law or a political figure, or posting an offensive meme, or coming up with the most creative protest sign, but in the end that's just entertainment. Commenting on economics requires real knowledge of economics. Not just reading an article in a mainstream economics magazine., but attaining some basic academic rigour of the field and hopefully getting to the point where you can read scholarly articles and critique them in a knowledgeable way. That's hard work. But really understanding something always takes hard work. Not "I have to be in make up at 6am before I get on stage and practice my lines and jokes about Trump's fat ass*" hard work, but REAL hard work. Its hard work that most professional politicians don't even do. But to me, that's why it's even more important that the average person does the hard work to gain the basic knowledge they need to call politicians out. A clever sign or a well timed joke just can't do that.
I also dislike the fact that it's fairly obvious that most entertainers doing "political" humour are having a financial field day complaining about Trump. You kind of have to wonder (with Trump himself being an entertainer and all) if they have a kind of deal going with Trump, like "You go up there and act crazy, we'll talk about it all the time, and we'll cut you 5% of all profits" or something. In fact, that's the only conspiracy theory I'm (half-jokingly) willing to support: that Trump and all the comedians and talk show hosts and commentary-media types got together and colluded to get him elected so they could turn politics into one big reality tv show so they could make all the money.
I'm not saying politics and social stances and art/comedy/whatever shouldn't mix. There's a place for that. Some political art is great. But I think what's going on right now...it's taking it too far.
(I want to note that I don't think learning should be a joyless exercise., where everyone is sitting stone-faced at their desk, with stiff backs, being all serious about everything. I just think there's a time and a place for everything. When I read a math book, or I'm in a lecture, I'm focused on the material. Outside of class, I don;t mind joking or whatever. I'm all for math jokes and such. But not during time that I'm paying for. I think the same should hold true for other serious subjects like politics/law, economics, health care (mental and physical), or any other number of professions that directly impact lives and the general social evolution and scientific progression of human beings.)
There are other reasons why I quit. I may discuss those reasons here at a later point, or I may not. For now, I'll probably just reactivate and then immediately re-de-activate my account on a monthly basis until I make a final, definitive "yea" or "nay" decision about continuing with Twitter.
Part of me feels like it's just better for me to write things on here than it is on Twitter. anyway. There were a few subjects I discussed on there that I'd like to flesh out more in depth on here (eg; my "pro-reparations for the descendants of enslaved Africans" stance), but as for Twitter itself.... I feel like I'm kind of done with it. At least for the foreseeable future, anyway.
(Also: I doubt I'll migrate to Facebook. I had a Facebook page for a while, but quit that in like 2011 and never went back. I just wasn't into it.)
(I probably won't reactivate my long-gone MySpace or Friendster accounts either. LOL!)
Anyway, There were a lot of really good people (who I both agreed with and didn't; and who came from all walks of life) with whom I communicated regularly or sporadically on Twitter, & I'd just like to say I enjoyed our conversations & I wish you the best and maybe some day we'll e-talk again...or maybe even talk IRL. Who knows. Peace and One Love to you all.
*By the way: when I write "Trump's fat ass" here, it's not calling him a "fat ass" because of his weight. I'm noting that most of these people are actually talking about how fat his rear end is. Most of the time, the talk show comedians doing some bit about his weight show the picture(s) of him playing golf with his rear end towards the camera coupled with a quip about the size his tush.