Read on Twitter
I've been thinking a lot recently about how social media, but particularly Twitter, is easy to have a negative relationship with. I feel it's a machine with the unintended consequence of reinforcing negative mindsets & thought habits among people who already struggle with that.
Twitter, even carefully curated, can be a place of nearly unmitigated pain & social rage. It encourages one to perform their values at all times & be on the bleeding edge, or risk being left out. They say the internet operates at lightspeed, but Twitter operates at thoughtspeed.
FOMO is a massive part of the social media experience, as is the receipt of extremely pleasurable external validation. Twitter responds well to strong, forthright emotive thoughts, as well; It's what it was built for. Those are what tend to be put out there foremost.
I have found that more often than not, the thoughts that come out of painful or anxious places are the ones most reinforced & rewarded. I genuinely feel like this mechanism can contribute to irrational thinking & a loss of sense of self (not in the enlightened way.)
Particularly at risk of this are people already prone to thinking like this, those like myself with communication disorders, learning disabilities or clinical anxiety problems. It can be so easy to slide into this negative way of thinking & make an identity out of that, instead.
Add on top of this parasocial relationship with oneself & validation, the problems that come from social isolation or limited social interaction can serve as a layer of cement on this.
Those of us who use this site a lot make a pseudo joking refrain that Twitter is a Hellsite.
Those of us who use this site a lot make a pseudo joking refrain that Twitter is a Hellsite.
But what does it say when we who use it the most recognise Twitter can be such a virulently unhealthy place to be online, & yet still engage with it day in, day out?
I feel as though I have watched people I care about change into different versions of themselves here.
I feel as though I have watched people I care about change into different versions of themselves here.
Less stable, less fulfilled, less able to cope, more anxious, more personally empty inside, more neurotic, and even, ultimately, less caring. I often try to step back & think about the strength of my own mental bulwark against all this. Am I falling prey, too?
Ultimately I like to think I have a handle on it, that I know the right amounts that are OK for me. But those parts of myself are just as susceptible to delusion or warpage than any other. I'd like Twitter to be a fun place but a lot of the time, it isn't. There's good here.
There's people I love to check up on here & people I don't want to lose casual contact with.
There are things I enjoy. But ultimately I worry about how much it's all worth.
There are things I enjoy. But ultimately I worry about how much it's all worth.
