Twitter is perhaps the most important means of social communications that we have today. And at the same time, it can be very dangerous.
Of course, one might expect that this editorial will attack our new president’s use of this social media platform and yet, in his use of Twitter rather than press conferences, he is recognizing something – we live in an age of immediate communication. This is how the world communicates and perhaps it is the new method how we as people can communicate to world leaders and they to us. It’s not tidy, and it’s not edited. But it seems like it is something that we must get used to, and right away.
After all, we never thought that we would have a pope who gives press conferences on airplanes after papal trips and yet, we do. Times change and so should we in terms of communications. These press conferences of the pope give the press instant, unfiltered access to the Holy Father. So, maybe we need to start thinking that this method of almost immediate access to our leaders is to be expected in the future. However, we urge our president to be wise and prudent in his use of Twitter. The president is no longer a private citizen; he is the leader of the free world and what he says has an immediate effect on the whole world.
Twitter can be good as well, as we can see exactly how influential people really think, without the “spin” of a press agent. Recently, an actor from the recently canceled “The Jim Gaffigan Show,” Michael Ian Black, released a tweet so horrific that it caused an uproar almost as great as the comments of “comedian” Lena Dunham last month on her podcast. Black, perhaps in an attempt at “dark humor,” writes: “Not a recommendation to the Republicans trying to replace Obamacare, but aborted babies are a lot cheaper than babies carried to term.” The slaughter of children is never funny. Black should be ashamed of himself.
Likewise, film director, Joss Whedon, of Marvel’s “The Avengers” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” fame, called for a horrific sex act to be done to Speaker of the House, Republican Paul Ryan. It was atrocious, vile and disgusting, and he was immediately challenged about it.
Twitter is like the Wild West. The rules are being made as we go along. Prudence is necessary, as well as a modicum of class. Let’s hope things get better for Twitter.
