Can We Quit All the Quitting, Already?

When the content firehose drowns a person in noise and distortion, it’s natural for the person to flee. To say enough already and quit.

You may have heard that people have been leaving Facebook in droves. Some of your friends and family may have vacated the digital premises.

Many Facebook users have begun to rethink their relationship with the app. In fact, a study conducted by Pew Research Center shows as many as 40-percent of U.S. users have taken a break from checking the app for several weeks on end. Additionally, 44-percent of younger users in the United States have deleted the app off of their phone entirely, a software company’s worst nightmare in the mobile-friendly world we live in.

Journos Reject Multi-Way Channels

Now, it’s Twitter’s turn. Brian Stelter of CNN argues:

The more time someone spends on Twitter, the more likely their view of the world is distorted by all the shouting. And the more likely they start shouting too. Being on Twitter contributes to a sense that the thing being shouted about is hugely important and being discussed by THE WHOLE WORLD when in fact it’s being discussed solely by people who are Extremely Online.

WHAT THE FUCK?

I’m not alone in my shoulder shrug. Journalism professor, Jeff Jarvis, writes:

I do not subscribe to the technological determinism and moral panic that blames the tool. “Twitter is ruining American journalism,” says Manjoo. No, journalists are responsible for the state of American journalism. They have no one to blame but themselves when they jump on a story too soon with unconfirmed information and rash conclusions, when they insist on joining in with their own needless and repetitive hot takes, when they match snark for snark. 

It seems that the need for someone or something to blame is on the rise throughout our culture. Do you know what else is on the rise today? Failure to accept responsibility (for any damn thing).

We need a solid term for trying too hard on Twitter.

— David Burn (@davidburn) February 4, 2019

Down with the Rhetorical Tweet

There’s a ton of poor Tweeting on a daily basis. Someone could write a thesis. For our needs here, let me point to one painful pet peeve.

The “Retweet if…” post is absurd on its surface and hollow to the core.

Is the intern loose on Twitter again? "RT if…" is some weak sauce. #contentmarketing

— David Burn (@davidburn) February 4, 2019

Sadly, “RT if…” is one of the more common approaches used by people in the political sphere. Pols want to build momentum for their causes, and they falsely believe that Retweets are an indication of support.

Even worse, what the audience needs and wants to know is simply not a factor in these shallow updates. Senator Murray and her staff can assume that we’re all for equal pay. The thing to do is to skip the rhetorical Tweet fill and get busy explaining how you’re going to make it happen.