📑 Shame Cycles and Twitter Rage

Reflecting on the recent furore that has arisen around Tom Rogers’ post sharing who to follow on Twitter, Sherri Spelic share some tips and questions to consider when dealing with the toxic side of Twitter.

– Is my engagement here necessary or essential?
– Will this conversation be helped by my intervention? In what way?
– Use a side commentary by quote-tweeting the original source of conflict.
– Use questions or invite the person to elaborate on a point of confusion.
– What is this involvement calling forth in me?
– Is this time I have to dedicate to this cause right now?

This always has me coming back to Ian Guest’s PhD about Twitter and wondering about all the possibilities, as well as what part Twitter itself plays with all this.

Marginalia

The next time we feel drawn into a rage-inducing exchange, we can perhaps first ask ourselves how the platform benefits and if that’s where our energies are really best spent. Twitter loves our rage. Our individual and public health do not.