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The new silent majority: People who don't tweet

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Re: The new silent majority: People who don't tweet

#21

I don't engage on Twitter out of fear. I sometimes see posts that I like and want to retweet but I don't because it means I'm endorsing everything the author has ever said or ever will say. It's not worth the risk. People in my demographic face significant exposure to "cancelling" or ambushing for wrongthink. So it's best for me to avoid it entirely.

>People in my demographic face significant exposure to "cancelling" or ambushing for wrongthink. I don't use Twitter or pretty much say anything publicly for the same reason, but note that this is definitely a risk for people of all demographics.

It is far more risk for some than others.

If you have a minority viewpoint, you get attacked far more easily.

Re: The new silent majority: People who don't tweet

#22

The most active social media users are usually people lacking in real life. Think about it, if you have a great job, a great partner and a great life, are you on Twitter arguing 20 to 30 hours a week. The type of person to argue with strangers all day has none of the above. It's also a matter of recognizing how insignificant we all are. No one cares what I think. Hopefully no one ever will. I do want to create games…

This feels oddly specific. I'm not sure why you can't engage on Twitter and still not be "lacking in real life." Who even gets to define "real life?" And while I'm sure some people spend 20-30 hours per week on Twitter I'm guessing it's such a small percentage of the world that it might as well be statistically insignificant.

Re: The new silent majority: People who don't tweet

#23

Can someone explain why they would ever put something on Twitter that is not marketing related? (I get it for business, but why for personal use?)

Many artists use it as a platform to show their art. I'm betting it's more popular than DeviantArt for this purpose, for example.

Re: The new silent majority: People who don't tweet

#24

> Independents — who are somewhere in the middle This seems factually wrong? Maybe most independents are in between the two parties, but not all. Look at Bernie Sanders for example, I would say he's to the left of the Democratic party. I thought maybe the Gallup poll they are referencing had a weird definition of an independent requiring it to be between the two parties, but I'm not seeing that either.

Aren't independents people who haven't declared any party affiliations? They are usually in the middle, but could have extreme Democrat or Republican views.

Re: The new silent majority: People who don't tweet

#26

I don't engage on Twitter out of fear. I sometimes see posts that I like and want to retweet but I don't because it means I'm endorsing everything the author has ever said or ever will say. It's not worth the risk. People in my demographic face significant exposure to "cancelling" or ambushing for wrongthink. So it's best for me to avoid it entirely.

This exactly. I once tried the twitter game, I thought it was important to have a big following or say clever things, whatever.

I was lightly burned by a tweet (of my own authoring) once, and I thought "I make $XYZ per year, twitter pays me nothing, this joke tweet caused me a lot of stress, the odds that being on twitter will get me cancelled will cost me $XYZ are non-zero and I don't control them"

Then I deleted all my tweets and my twitter account (8 years ago) and life has been really nice without it!

Re: The new silent majority: People who don't tweet

#27

"Never pass up a chance to keep your mouth shut" Words my Dad taught me as I was growing up, but only really sank in the last 5 or so years ago.

Similar quote by Mark Twain

> It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

Re: The new silent majority: People who don't tweet

#29
post #22

The most active social media users are usually people lacking in real life. Think about it, if you have a great job, a great partner and a great life, are you on Twitter arguing 20 to 30 hours a week. The type of person to argue with strangers all day has none of the above. It's also a matter of recognizing how insignificant we all are. No one cares what I think. Hopefully no one ever will. I do want to create games…

This feels oddly specific. I'm not sure why you can't engage on Twitter and still not be "lacking in real life." Who even gets to define "real life?" And while I'm sure some people spend 20-30 hours per week on Twitter I'm guessing it's such a small percentage of the world that it might as well be statistically insignificant.

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