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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?
Published in General
I included the Elon Mush example to illustrate the power social media holds even in our financial market place. The CEO of a large cooperation, like Elon Musk, however unhinged he may be, can simply type in fifty or so characters in twitter and cause the financial markets to skyrocket or crash. Is this direct manipulation of the stock market? Emphatically yes, and the SEC rightfully filed a suit against him. But the ease by which someone can manipulate the financial markets using social media is very unsettling to me.
Yes, it is hard to judge legitimacy on the internet, and is something that must constantly be looked at. My hypothesis is people listen because it is the path of least resistance. It is the easiest and most efficient means of ingesting information. And as a result people use it.
I think that is true. I just read an editorial bemoaning click-bait headlines (which I now cannot find) that said most news stories that are shared on social media are not read beyond the headline. People read the attention-grabbing headline and click Share without ever bothering to read the actual story, which generally fails to support the attention grabbing headline. Here is another blog about it: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/nosacredcows/2018/09/study-confirms-most-people-share-articles-based-only-on-headlines/
No, twitter and Trump reveals what people really are. It is that people are basically crap.
This is different from our esteemed news outlets CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post?
I stand corrected about the situation, however I find it not much different than had he said those words in a press release.
I have no objection to your basic premise. Is it ever smart to say anything publicly?
As an individual probably not. In the aggregate? Absolutely!
I do object to your mischaraterizations of public figures ( on social media yourself- careful!) and as a conservative, your seeming inability to filter news for yourself rather than swallowing the party-line.
You claim without evidence ( as they are saying nowadays) that Rosanne Barr is a racist and that a billionaire visionary is “unhinged”. If people didn’t have social media to defend themselves, we’d be in even worse shape.
This is our new problem. There is an information war and ‘they’ are winning – for one thing because we have many on our side who digest the well-crafted garbage coming from our enemies without a second thought. You, here on social media, have advanced the meme that Roseanne is a racist without processing the facts for yourself and done nothing to correct it. This might be the more the crux of the problem you seek to explore.
I say the problem isn’t the medium, it’s allowing the ignorant mob to dominate the ‘debate’ such as it is. It’s not the torches and pitchforks, or the horses that carried them to the jail for the lynching, it’s their sanctimony, ignorance and inability to grant even a modicum of grace to their fellow man.
If our words can be twisted and our minds can be read by these people, going mute (while unwittingly advancing their agenda re Roseanne) is not going to help. You are their enemy, and they are not using reason.
Go ahead and put your head down and carry on. Eventually they will root you out and lynch you. But at least know your enemy and stop helping them.
I agree. It wasn’t racist, but it was funny!
No,Gary. The apologies never matter. The left wants blood, wants to show that no one can dare to cross them. Hence TDS.
To equate all social-media platforms, and to equate all of the ways one might use social media, is to vastly oversimplify the reality.
My use of social media is largely limited to posting occasional status updates on Facebook. I never post about politics; my posts are generally just comments about something amusing I saw, or some interesting experience I’ve had like trying a new restaurant. Furthermore, my posts are only visible to my friends, and my list of Facebook friends is limited to actual friends; I don’t accept friend requests from people I don’t actually regard as friends in real life.
The only other social-media platform I use (unless you count Ricochet) is Instagram. I don’t use it regularly, but when we travel, I use it as a place to share some of my photography. Again, the intended audience is generally my friends and family, but if a stranger happens to see one of my travel photos and likes it, that’s cool.
It’s hard to imagine how any of this could possibly have any negative repercussions for me.
If I were to make all of my social-media content public (posting on Twitter, for example), and to fill it with political opinions, then yeah, I’d be taking a risk. Anyone who does so without carefully considering the possible consequences is being foolish. As for me, I have no interest in pushing my political opinions on anyone, or in provoking confrontations, so that’s not something I’ve ever felt tempted to do.
Part of the background on Roseanne is that she was roundly disliked for decades, back when she was a crackpot liberal instead of a crackpot martyr. Her writers hated her, the studios and networks couldn’t stand dealing with her because she was a bratty, entitled prima donna known for screaming fits and getting people fired. Chuck Lorre, producer of such non-woke hits as The Big Bang Theory, wrote an episode of CSI about the murder of a despised comedienne. She stood out as one of the very worst in a town that has seen plenty of them. The town was amazed that ABC was willing to chance working with her on a new series. Long before she went on the air–long before she ever said anything remotely pro-Trump–her representatives assured the industry press that this was a new Roseanne, who wasn’t going to toss hot coffee in the faces of what she considered “the little people” on the set.
Despite all that, she got the show and the new concept of making it “All in the Family II” was a hit. All she had to do was not screw it up. She did.
I have to laugh at commenters who say, “Prove she’s a racist”. I don’t know or care what she is. She sent a racist Tweet that was enough to get her fired. She’s no conservative and no victim. She was free to make her Tweet. Everyone else was free to react. Outside of Breitbart, there’s been no public outcry over this poor, misunderstood champion of freedom. The Conners is doing fine without her.
There are two daily hard business “trades” in Hollywood, Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. Both of them were full of inside news about Kevin Hart and the Oscars. For days, they were baffled: Why the hell can’t he say he was wrong about what he wrote? The academy did not want to fire him–that’s a fact. They desperately wanted to keep a Black host at a time when they’ve been endlessly criticized. Nobody on the Oscar show staff wanted to have to improvise a new plan so late in the year, so close to the ceremony. By the time he finally, grudgingly said something, it was all over. He said something then because otherwise there are plenty of people who’d never work with him again. Sensible–and by then, too obviously “convenient”.
I am baffled by self-appointed experts in conservatism who claim, “If we don’t defend people’s rights to act like morons, our enemies will come for us next”. If Roseanne thinks some woman deserves to be compared to an ape because she worked for the other party, then she’s my enemy.
I would advise all young people – actually old too – to stay away from social media. The benefits are slim but the negative impact of a misconstrued statement can be very damaging. I really can’t see why one should be in social media. I’m not.
“I have to laugh at commenters who say, “Prove she’s a racist”. I don’t know or care what she is. She sent a racist Tweet that was enough to get her fired”
In order for a tweet to be “ racist” the person sending it needs to be racist. There needs to be actual intent. It’s obvious that Rosanne is not a racist, she made a mistake. She’s a comedian. She apologized.
But “enough to get her fired” is a pretty lame standard. Anyone can get fired for any reason. You know that. So that’s meaningless. Not liking her is fine, probably justified even, but allowing them to claim anyone is a racist and misinterpret words and intentions makes you a chump for them. By the way, a chump is not a chimp, but you are free to misinterpret like they do.
I don’t know what Kevin Hart said 8 years ago, but if it wasn’t egregious then, why now? Why do people have to suddenly apologize for what they said 8 years ago?
Good for him that he refused to apologize! The Oscar gig doesn’t pay very well and they actually needed him more than he needed them.
They are inventing rules faster than we, their enemies, can comply.
And you and young conservative are apparently eager to submit to whatever they require of you.
I actually like all this controversy because it helps draw the battle lines. You guys aren’t helping…
That’s the truth. It used to be truly “must see TV.” That hasn’t been true for quite a while.
The Academy did without a Master of Ceremonies that year because nobody wanted the gig!
None of that matters. Roseann had made a gorilla joke about a famous black lady. The left does not permit this. No apology would suffice. Tell me the names of five successful apologizers.
“The left does not permit this”? If I’d been running Disney, I wouldn’t have permitted it either. I think she was disgusting.
And VJ really does look like the Kim Hunter character in Planet Of The Apes. Everybody noticed that long before Barr got herself in trouble by mentioning it out loud.
Yes she does.
And so what? She could take pride in being trans-species! What’s wrong with simians?!!
I didn’t follow this one. I think something happened on Joe Rogan’s podcast. He’s always been a big advocate for marijuana.
420?
You mean that whole incident was because Elon Musk made a marijuana joke?
Why are you posting your opinion here? Ricochet is, by any reasonable definition, a social media site. Granted it’s not nearly as successful as the ones you named, but not for lack of trying…
Indeed. And yet, we persist . . .
Welcome to the club. One thing you should know is that any post you write that is promoted to the Main Feed is no longer behind the paywall. Not that many non-members out there read anything that contains more than two paragraphs so you’re pretty safe from those that have the attention span of a gnat.
Yep, welcome.
I think it’s a great question. As someone who is highly critical of social media yet is on it myself with no real intention of stopping soon, I think about it a lot. I can only answer for myself. I didn’t for years but then started to with my business. I live in Europe, I have three young children and an an adult son, parents, siblings and all the rest of my family in the States who mainly want to stay up-to-date with the kids growing up and also how things are going with my wife and I. It’s an easy way to keep everyone updated. To some degree I use it to jot down some thoughts but I’m at an age I’m pretty restrained so don’t have to worry too much about saying anything that will get me in trouble. I am so happy that it wasn’t around when I was a teenager or in my 20s. I can’t imagine what people would be able to dig up on me.
I have hundreds of relatives all over the world; years ago I started a private FB group of just relatives. It’s been a Godsend for sharing pictures, news, and unfortunately health news as my own parents passed and so many of my cousins.
We share happy news also, but for sad news, or health updates that you don’t want to widely share, it’s terrific. When my dad was sick my mom loved it; I kept everyone up to date online; when she got a call from a niece or nephew, she didn’t have to spend all her time repeating the same grim news over and over.
And my relatives got day by day accounts of how he was doing.
For the most part, I agree with you; people are “basically crap” and Twitter exacerbates our worst qualities. However, I don’t think Twitter is merely revealing what we are. I believe it’s creating something wholly different in us. Part of who we are is also our struggle with those bad qualities. We have good qualities, too. We have a conscience. Sometimes we even have some fear we might get punched in the face. There’s a higher level of restraint we have in person and even on the phone hearing a voice. To me, that restraint is more real than anything taking place in social media exchanges. Not to mention, the ability to quick Google something before tweeting paints a picture we’re smarter than we really are.