Why Use Social Media?

 

In the aftermath of the Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeting his support of the anti-government protests in Hong Kong, which consequently led to a PR firestorm and the ire of our communist neighbors, it got me thinking.  Why does anybody engage is social media at all? Why would one engage in such platforms when even the most offhand, negligible comment can cost someone their job or even livelihood? It just doesn’t make sense to me. 

I can think of a couple of examples of social media costing people significant amounts. Last October, Roseanne Barr’s racist tweet about Valerie Jarrett cost her a new season of her extremely popular show “Roseanne.” Elon Musk’s tweet on the morning of Aug. 7, 2018, claiming he would sell Tesla at $420 ended up costing him $20 million. I think the most scathing example is how last December, an eight-year-old tweet cost Kevin Hart a chance at hosting the Oscars. It seems there is no statute of limitations on internet content.

In addition, being a relatively young person, it is nearly a 100 percent certainty that I will have to look for a job sometime in the near future. Today, it is nearly standard practice for companies screen potential employees social media accounts before hiring them. Why would I engage on social media if it could be nitpicked, misconstrued, and potentially prevent me from employment? Our country’s Miranda warning states, “anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.” Today, anything you say on social media can and will be used against you in the court of public opinion. 

Now, I can understand why a company would engage in social media, so that they can establish a following or maintain a customer base. But why would you or I, regular citizens, tweet their opinions or post an Instagram photo only for it to be grossly misinterpreted and have it eventually cost us? And yet, these platforms, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, etc., are massively popular and worth billions of dollars. It just doesn’t add up to me. Can someone please explain why anybody is on these things?

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  1. Steve C. Member
    Steve C.
    @user_531302

    I have 1 rule.

    Never post anything on social media you wouldn’t be willing to see on the front page of The NY Times.

    I have a corollary. Never send anything in a company email that you wouldn’t be willing to show the scolds in HR.

    Then there’s the rule about not betting money you don’t have, on a dog race with your ex-stripper girlfriend….maybe another time.

    • #1
  2. Gary McVey Contributor
    Gary McVey
    @GaryMcVey

    Is social media dangerous? Having a megaphone has always been dangerous. Some people can’t handle it without making jackasses out of themselves. 

    Roseanne was on social media because she had lots of followers. It’s a boost to the ego. Of course, if her employer has been promised repeatedly by her agents and managers that her many occasions of saying insane and offensive things were over for the duration of her new show, they’re likely to have a low threshhold for comparing a Black woman to an ape. Disney isn’t an edgy nightclub; it owns theme parks, and in America one eighth of their potential customers are Black. No tears for Roseanne, who could have defused this with an instant apology, an immediate claim that the Ambien made her do it, and a fake, superficial stint at rehab for crazily drugged behavior. She did none of those things. Nobody had to sleuth this Tweet; she broadcast it to everyone. 

    No tears for Hart, either. You say “eight year old Tweet” like it was the middle ages. All the academy wanted was an apology, period. He wouldn’t do it, because his default position is he’s always the victim. They didn’t want to fire him. He fired himself. 

     

    • #2
  3. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    You didn’t even mention the woman who tweeted something about not wanting to get AIDS during her visit to Africa, got on a plane, and was unemployed by the time her flight landed.

    Steve C. (View Comment):
    I have a corollary. Never send anything in a company email that you wouldn’t be willing to show the scolds in HR.

    I’m covered there.  We don’t have an HR department.

    • #3
  4. Franco Member
    Franco
    @Franco

    Roseanne Barr did not make a racist tweet. It was ( deliberately) misinterpreted as such. The reason I know that is:

    1. She explained her thinking and not knowing Jarret was A-A, she was on ambien and, as a professional comedian was making a joke.

    2. She apologized completely for the accidental offense.

    3. She has had and still has many close black friends – and fairly radical types who could not be construed as Uncle Toms by anyone. She is clearly not a racist.

    4. They would not accept her explanation or her heartfelt sincere apology.

    To me this is despicable. I do not want to live in a world like this.

    They wanted to deplatform her because she was singlehandedly normalizing Trump and especially Trump voters.

    I can’t comment on the point of post before that is clarified and understood. 

    • #4
  5. Franco Member
    Franco
    @Franco

    Elon Musk didn’t lose 20 million from that tweet. The value of his stock went down. Whether that particular tweet was advisable is beside the point. Stocks go up and down for all kinds of reasons. Musk is focused on his business not his stock fluctuations. Stock value is mostly perception, and as perception evokes the stock price reflects current ‘reality’. 

    Musk has hundreds of tweets that helped his company, so I don’t quite see why he should stop tweeting.

    He also “ smoked pot” on Joe Rogan’s podcast. That ‘cost’ him too. However, what wasn’t reported was: he didn’t inhale, and he said he didn’t really smoke and didn’t really like it. 

    Short-sellers ( and others) have a stake in him failing. It’s a war of perception. You can’t fight that by hiding.

    They will just make stuff up, anyway. That’s the next step. Believe me, this is already a pretend world. It’s not about the content. It’s what they make up and claim to be true. Changing our behavior to suit them is not the answer. 

    Try not to advance their cause, please!

    • #5
  6. Addiction Is A Choice Member
    Addiction Is A Choice
    @AddictionIsAChoice

    Franco (View Comment):
    She explained her thinking and not knowing Jarret was A-A, she was on ambien and, as a professional comedian was making a joke.

    And a funny one at that! 

    Search “valerie jarrett planet of apes” and click “Images.”

    • #6
  7. Kephalithos Member
    Kephalithos
    @Kephalithos

    Most people don’t join social media because they want to opine about politics. They join social media because they want to maintain contact with friends (or because, well, everybody else is doing it), and opining about politics follows — once they’ve acclimated to the roiling sea of mental diarrhea, like a fish to water.

    Social media makes it easy to vent pent-up annoyances. Perhaps it’s irrational to do so. But then, when have angry people ever been rational?

    • #7
  8. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    I don’t think I have anything to worry about.

    Well, not much, anyway.

    • #8
  9. RushBabe49 Thatcher
    RushBabe49
    @RushBabe49

    Fame is a value in today’s society, and everyone wants their 15 minutes of fame.

    I’m old, and I have a personal blog where I do all my incendiary posts. Not on social media at all, and I did a post on this very issue (Why I am not on Facebook or Twitter-search over at RushBabe49.com).

    • #9
  10. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    RushBabe49 (View Comment):

    Fame is a value in today’s society, and everyone wants their 15 minutes of fame.

    I’m old, and I have a personal blog where I do all my incendiary posts. Not on social media at all, and I did a post on this very issue (Why I am not on Facebook or Twitter-search over at RushBabe49.com).

    Bomb-thrower. 😁

    • #10
  11. Annefy Member
    Annefy
    @Annefy

    Gary McVey (View Comment):

    Is social media dangerous? Having a megaphone has always been dangerous. Some people can’t handle it without making jackasses out of themselves.

    Roseanne was on social media because she had lots of followers. It’s a boost to the ego. Of course, if her employer has been promised repeatedly by her agents and managers that her many occasions of saying insane and offensive things were over for the duration of her new show, they’re likely to have a low threshhold for comparing a Black woman to an ape. Disney isn’t an edgy nightclub; it owns theme parks, and in America one eighth of their potential customers are Black. No tears for Roseanne, who could have defused this with an instant apology, an immediate claim that the Ambien made her do it, and a fake, superficial stint at rehab for crazily drugged behavior. She did none of those things. Nobody had to sleuth this Tweet; she broadcast it to everyone.

    No tears for Hart, either. You say “eight year old Tweet” like it was the middle ages. All the academy wanted was an apology, period. He wouldn’t do it, because his default position is he’s always the victim. They didn’t want to fire him. He fired himself.

     

    Hart had already apologized several times for his tweets.

    As for Roseanne, she did apologize. A lot. Plus, it was a misunderstanding.

    There’s an interesting discussion going on (I’ve heard Joe Rogan speak of it several times) as to redemption; how would it look, who would get it. Because our current trend is not good – people like Roseanne and Hart are the jesters; they’re supposed to be dancing close to the line. If we want funny people, we need to make allowances for when the get too close or cross over.

    • #11
  12. Gary McVey Contributor
    Gary McVey
    @GaryMcVey

    Roseanne didn’t dance close to the line, she wasn’t funny, and she’d been warned–repeatedly–not to pull stunts like this if she wanted to stay on a Disney-owned network. Her apology was late and reluctant, otherwise she could have survived it. She thought she’d be able to pull a Charlie Sheen. She forgot that Sheen got fired.

    EDIT: And Sheen was on anything-goes CBS, not “family friendly” (hah) ABC.

    • #12
  13. MichaelKennedy Inactive
    MichaelKennedy
    @MichaelKennedy

    RushBabe49 (View Comment):
    I’m old, and I have a personal blog where I do all my incendiary posts.

    Pretty much my style, too.  I have never involved myself with Twitter, use Facebook mostly to keep up with family and friends. I refuse almost all “friends” requests I get.  The personal blog is for saving stuff I want to remember.

    • #13
  14. Annefy Member
    Annefy
    @Annefy

    Gary McVey (View Comment):

    Roseanne didn’t dance close to the line, she wasn’t funny, and she’d been warned–repeatedly–not to pull stunts like this if she wanted to stay on a Disney-owned network. Her apology was late and reluctant, otherwise she could have survived it. She thought she’d be able to pull a Charlie Sheen. She forgot that Sheen got fired.

    EDIT: And Sheen was on anything-goes CBS, not “family friendly” (hah) ABC.

    First of all, whether or not someone is “funny” is a matter of opinion. So you saying RB is not funny is silly.

    Second of all – how do you know she was trying to pull a Charlie Sheen? (Mind read much?)

    Reluctant? How the heck do you know?

    “It was 2 in the morning and I was ambien tweeting – it was memorial day too – i went 2 far & do not want it defended – it was egregious Indefensible. I made a mistake I wish I hadn’t but … don’t defend it please.”

    “I don’t want to run off and blather on with excuses,” she said. “But I apologize to anyone who thought, or felt offended and who thought that I meant something that I, in fact, did not mean.”

    “I never would have wittingly called any black person, [said that] they are a monkey. I just wouldn’t do that. I didn’t do that. And people think that I did that and it just kills me. I didn’t do that. And if they do think that, I’m just so sorry that I was so unclear and stupid. I’m very sorry.”

    From what I remember, the above quotes were after her show was cancelled, so she had nothing to gain at that point.

     

    • #14
  15. Franco Member
    Franco
    @Franco

    Gary McVey (View Comment):

    Roseanne didn’t dance close to the line, she wasn’t funny, and she’d been warned–repeatedly–not to pull stunts like this if she wanted to stay on a Disney-owned network. Her apology was late and reluctant, otherwise she could have survived it. She thought she’d be able to pull a Charlie Sheen. She forgot that Sheen got fired.

    EDIT: And Sheen was on anything-goes CBS, not “family friendly” (hah) ABC.

    What constitutes “late” and how do you get to characterize it as reluctant? I thought it was thorough and heartfelt. 

    Here’s the thing: Is she a bigot or racist? It’s pretty obvious she isn’t. So what’s the problem? Oh, she’s been normalizing Trump voters. Can’t have that! ABC is in bed with racist Chinese slavers and totalitarians for money. They are also in the thrall of Democrats. Clintonite George Stephanopolus is head of their political news! They have no standing to pretend morals or ethics. 

    They could have managed that accident if they had wanted. The show was making a ton of money for them. It was pure politics.

    • #15
  16. Franco Member
    Franco
    @Franco

    Annefy (View Comment):

    Gary McVey (View Comment):

    Roseanne didn’t dance close to the line, she wasn’t funny, and she’d been warned–repeatedly–not to pull stunts like this if she wanted to stay on a Disney-owned network. Her apology was late and reluctant, otherwise she could have survived it. She thought she’d be able to pull a Charlie Sheen. She forgot that Sheen got fired.

    EDIT: And Sheen was on anything-goes CBS, not “family friendly” (hah) ABC.

    First of all, whether or not someone is “funny” is a matter of opinion. So you saying RB is not funny is silly.

    Second of all – how do you know she was trying to pull a Charlie Sheen? (Mind read much?)

    Reluctant? How the heck do you know?

    “It was 2 in the morning and I was ambien tweeting – it was memorial day too – i went 2 far & do not want it defended – it was egregious Indefensible. I made a mistake I wish I hadn’t but … don’t defend it please.”

    “I don’t want to run off and blather on with excuses,” she said. “But I apologize to anyone who thought, or felt offended and who thought that I meant something that I, in fact, did not mean.”

    “I never would have wittingly called any black person, [said that] they are a monkey. I just wouldn’t do that. I didn’t do that. And people think that I did that and it just kills me. I didn’t do that. And if they do think that, I’m just so sorry that I was so unclear and stupid. I’m very sorry.”

    From what I remember, the above quotes were after her show was cancelled, so she had nothing to gain at that point.

     

    Our posts crossed. Great minds….

    That apology sounded sooooo…. reluctant. Not.

    • #16
  17. Gary McVey Contributor
    Gary McVey
    @GaryMcVey

    “Normalize Trump voters?” That’s one reason they hired her. That’s what gave the show its eye-catching edge. They liked that. Making bigoted Tweets doesn’t exactly help Trump voters. This wasn’t something that just bothered the usual butthurt left; it pissed off a whole lot of neutrals.

    Did Blacks rush to her defense? No. Blacks did not defend her; on the contrary. Quit trying to make her a martyr. She’s got the highest paid PR people in Hollywood. They know what she had to do. She didn’t do it.

    • #17
  18. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness induced by the combination of social media and the election of Donald Trump.

    Twitter is an dumpster fire.

    • #18
  19. Annefy Member
    Annefy
    @Annefy

    Gary McVey (View Comment):

    “Normalize Trump voters?” That’s one reason they hired her. That’s what gave the show its eye-catching edge. They liked that. Making bigoted Tweets doesn’t exactly help Trump voters. This wasn’t something that just bothered the usual butthurt left; it pissed off a whole lot of neutrals.

    Did Blacks rush to her defense? No. Blacks did not defend her; on the contrary. Quit trying to make her a martyr. She’s got the highest paid PR people in Hollywood. They know what she had to do. She didn’t do it.

     

    What’s “it”?

    • #19
  20. Annefy Member
    Annefy
    @Annefy

    Percival (View Comment):

    I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness induced by the combination of social media and the election of Donald Trump.

    Twitter is an dumpster fire.

    I agree it does more harm than good. And it certainly brings out the worst in some folks.

    I never tweet, but I do follow quite a few people and find it interesting and helpful. (Bret and Eric Weinstein, Bill Pulte and Dr Shiva Ayyadurai are my favorites.  Dr Robert Epstein and Scott Pressler are also good follows)

    • #20
  21. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Annefy (View Comment):

    Percival (View Comment):

    I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness induced by the combination of social media and the election of Donald Trump.

    Twitter is an dumpster fire.

    I agree it does more harm than good. And it certainly brings out the worst in some folks.

    I never tweet, but I do follow quite a few people and find it interesting and helpful. (Bret and Eric Weinstein, Bill Pulte and Dr Shiva Ayyadurai are my favorites. Dr Robert Epstein and Scott Pressler are also good follows)

    That’s pretty much the way I treat it. I almost never retweet anything.

    • #21
  22. Gossamer Cat Coolidge
    Gossamer Cat
    @GossamerCat

    a young conservative: But why would you or I, regular citizens, tweet their opinions or post an instagram photo only for it to be grossly misinterpreted and have it eventually cost us?

    And the corollary:  Why would anyone listen to a bunch of anonymous individuals whose entire effort at public discourse involves typing 240 characters, swiping right or hitting the share button?  

    • #22
  23. Fake John/Jane Galt Coolidge
    Fake John/Jane Galt
    @FakeJohnJaneGalt

    I have been withdrawing from social media for a while.  I am thinking about completely shutting my profiles down.  Evidence shows that being on social media is dangerous to one’s career, maybe life.  I am still debating about Ricochet.  

    • #23
  24. Gary McVey Contributor
    Gary McVey
    @GaryMcVey

    Annefy (View Comment):

    Gary McVey (View Comment):

    “Normalize Trump voters?” That’s one reason they hired her. That’s what gave the show its eye-catching edge. They liked that. Making bigoted Tweets doesn’t exactly help Trump voters. This wasn’t something that just bothered the usual butthurt left; it pissed off a whole lot of neutrals.

    Did Blacks rush to her defense? No. Blacks did not defend her; on the contrary. Quit trying to make her a martyr. She’s got the highest paid PR people in Hollywood. They know what she had to do. She didn’t do it.

     

    What’s “it”?

    Immediately–not belatedly–say she was wrong, not just a wimpy “sorry if you were offended” type apology, or “I was misunderstood”. She was perfectly understood. Accept ABC’s distaste and agree she would go into rehab, not for racism, but for her abuse of ambien. Humiliating, eh? Tough. Blame the drug right off the bat–she didn’t. ABC in turn would have told her that if she stuck with the harsh terms of the deal, she’d probably be OK. But she’d have to take it seriously, not Tweet pictures of herself in rehab, not take it as a joke as others have. She’d probably have to go on Oprah or something like that at the end of the summer to publicly apologize for comparing a Black woman to a gorilla. Celebrities do stuff like that, and that’s what Roseanne is. If she took this humbling, groveling path, she’d get the show back. Aww, poor Roseanne. If she didn’t, forget it. Those are the rules of the star game, and she knows it. She couldn’t or wouldn’t do it. That’s on her, not ABC or Disney. 

    • #24
  25. Franco Member
    Franco
    @Franco

    Gary McVey (View Comment):

    “Normalize Trump voters?” That’s one reason they hired her. That’s what gave the show its eye-catching edge. They liked that. Making bigoted Tweets doesn’t exactly help Trump voters. This wasn’t something that just bothered the usual butthurt left; it pissed off a whole lot of neutrals.

    Did Blacks rush to her defense? No. Blacks did not defend her; on the contrary. Quit trying to make her a martyr. She’s got the highest paid PR people in Hollywood. They know what she had to do. She didn’t do it.

    Blacks don’t rush to anyone’s defense since they know what happens to them when they do. Please name a case where blacks rushed to any white folk defense. Some tried to do it with Trump, and got shut down.

    What’s the evidence that they “liked” it? If they liked it they wouldn’t have fired her immediately. It was a number one hit show. 

    I imagine some people liked it, but not the powerful people…

    I don’t know about her PR people, I only go by what she herself says.

    She’s also a bit wacky in general, but they knew that. She was making millions for them. I’m not buying it. ABC/Disney has better PR people than freakin Roseanne Barr. They could have made it all better had they so desired. 

    As to who it “pissed off” wait… there are neutrals? Really?

    The point is that folding and agreeing with their premises and narratives is drinking poison. Have you NOT noticed they are making everything up? It doesn’t matter.

    Theyve been deliberately misinterpreting for some time now and we see the results even from our own side. 

    We are now at the point where if you say NOTHING they will just make it up out of whole cloth. We are THAT close. If we “young conservatives” and older ones like myself allow them to dictate what people’s intentions are and read minds ( as evidenced by some of your remarks here as well) the next step is just putting words in your mouth. 

    I can cite recent examples… Adam Shiff on the House floor and Disney ABC news showing fake footage claiming to be shot in Syria. Wake up!

     

    • #25
  26. Franco Member
    Franco
    @Franco

    Our own side going along with deliberate misinterpretations. Very sad. We will never stop this madness by appeasing these people. 

    Everyone is getting into the act. You can be condemned by a mere accusation now from the right person whose higher on the victim scale and good at acting hysterically outraged. I’m disgusted.

    • #26
  27. Franco Member
    Franco
    @Franco

    I understand not tweeting or saying anything on social media at all to preserve one’s prospects in life. I do it myself, but buying into their narratives and agreeing with these determined leftists as though it’s perfectly reasonable is alarming to me.

    Question: if someone uses a saying , for example,  “the pot calling the kettle black” , and someone says it’s racist and that the person who used the saying is therefore racist, does that make the person racist?

    Do we just throw that person to the wolves and call them stupid? That’s pretty much what some on our ‘side’ here are doing , blissfully unaware, it looks like.

    • #27
  28. Al French, sad sack Moderator
    Al French, sad sack
    @AlFrench

    Welcome to Ricochet, @ayoungconservative.

    You managed to stir up a hornets nest with your first post. Congratulations.

    • #28
  29. Gary McVey Contributor
    Gary McVey
    @GaryMcVey

    Al French, sad sack (View Comment):

    Welcome to Ricochet, @ayoungconservative.

    You managed to stir up a hornets nest with your first post. Congratulations.

    I have to join in on that. Welcome! Well, to the hornet’s nest, anyway. Please don’t take disagreement personally. It’s like the WWE; we have babyfaces and heels, and from post to post they switch places. 

    • #29
  30. a young conservative Coolidge
    a young conservative
    @ayoungconservative

    Al French, sad sack (View Comment):

    Welcome to Ricochet, @ayoungconservative.

    You managed to stir up a hornets nest with your first post. Congratulations.

    Thank you Al French, sad sack!  It was something that was on my mind, and I wanted to see what the Ricochet community had to think about it.  And you all did not disappoint!  I am happy to be here.  

    • #30
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