Opinion Please dont share your thoughts
Social media takes public stupidity to new levels and preserves it forever
Last week,there came an extraordinary tale of our times. It concerned aides to Representative Rick Larsen,Democrat of Washington,who broadcast via Twitter how cool it was to be sitting in the seat of power at midday while drinking Jack Daniels and watching Nirvana videos on the taxpayers dime. For good measure,they sent out a couple of bad mots about their idiot boss. Within an hour of hearing about the indiscretions,which had continued for months on personal Twitter accounts,the boss fired all three young people.
But there is only one difference between the knuckleheads of yore me,for example who did numerous stupid things between the onset of puberty and a late adolescence lasting to nearly 30,and those Twit-iots of the 21st century. And that is technology. Facebook,Twitter,cellphone text messages and palm-size appliances yet to sprout from Apples labs allow all of us to be banal in real time.
Let the counter-revolt begin; the shying of America would be a welcome thing. Sure,social media tools have helped foster revolutions (Egypt,Tunisia),while releasing butterflies of free speech in police states (Iran). And its great to get baby pictures from that distant relative. But enough with the everyday shared thoughts,those half-hatched word products that could use more time in vitro.
People I once admired,even looked up to smart,literate,funny folks have gone down several notches in my estimation after they decided to reveal their every idiotic observation via Twitter. From one (Ill protect him here,even if he wont do the same thing for himself by going silent for a day),a man known for daring urban design ideas,came these recent insights:
Stuck in traffic. OMG,this light is long!
Just had the best burrito of my life!
Where did this compulsion for light confession come from? In part,surely,from narcissism,a trait as ancient as our species. But at least Narcissus could only stare at his own reflection until it killed him.
So I cheered the news this week that the march of Facebook into every facet of our lives has slowed at last. The imperative of Facebook maximum exposure of the personal brand is by itself a form of poison to lasting relationships. Its hard enough trying to stay close to say,five good friends. Why have surface relationships with a hundred of them?
The fear of those newly proclaimed social-media-phobes is that people will say they disappeared,or that,without regular screen updates,they dont even exist at all. But theyll never vanish. Among the haunting consequences of Facebook and Twitter use is the immortality of ill-chosen words and personal pictures. Cyberspace never forgets.
Plus,public displays of stupidity happen at the highest levels. When Sonia Sotomayor was nominated to be the first Latina Supreme Court Justice,Newt Gingrich tweeted she was a racist and should withdraw her name. He was following that paragon of unfiltered verbiage,Rush Limbaugh. Gingrich later took his racist comment back,saying hed acted in haste. Of course he wants it back. There are 50 million Hispanics in the US,and they are the nations fastest-growing minority. But no matter how many appeals to Hispanics Gingrich tries to make,his digital tattoo can never be erased. In his youth,Gingrich married his high school teacher. If Twitter existed then (and you know he would have tweeted hourly),he most likely would not be the Republican frontrunner today.
The best advice Ive heard of late is from actor George Clooney. I dont tweet,I dont go on Facebook, he said in a profile. I think theres too much information about all of us out there. Im liking the idea of privacy more and more. Easy for him to say. Hes famous. But oh,how he wouldnt crave a bit of the most precious commodity of the digital age anonymity.
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