2022 feels like the pre-1989 era in Communist Bulgaria - people only shared what they think in their closest circles.
The new silent majority: People who don't tweet
161–170 of 784 posts
Re: The new silent majority: People who don't tweet
#162I 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.
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Re: The new silent majority: People who don't tweet
#163Earlier quoted context omitted.
This question needs to be asked more often. It took me quite a while to realize why I'm more engaged on Twitter than I used to be. In my case, it's to have a conversation. Before I moved to the United States, I could have all sorts of conversations with people at work, no matter how controversial or stupid or weird. But in the US, the culture is different. There are things that you can't discuss with your coworkers,…
> the society in the United States suffers from a "disease" of alienating people from each other and isolating them Is that unique to the US? It feels like something broadly true if I believe what I see in the news and online forums, but in my personal life it does not feel true at all.
I can't say whether it's unique to the US, because I've only lived in two other countries before moving here. Also, I've spent all these years since I moved to the US living in the same county of the same state, a state so notorious for how hard it is to make friends, that there's a name for the phenomenon: Seattle Freeze.
On the other hand, I've talked to a lot of other immigrants who lived in different states before this, and the general consensus (in that admittedly small sample) is that the US is definitely different from South America or Europe in that sense.
For context, I lived in Chile before I moved to the US, and Chile is the country in South America that tries the hardest to be like the US. Even in Chile, it's easier to have a richer social life than here, despite longer working hours and longer commutes, which both result in having much less free time. My own theory is because you get to socialize more at work and, if you have a kid that goes to kindergarten or school, with other parents. Here? "Not so much" would be an understatement.
Re: The new silent majority: People who don't tweet
#164Earlier quoted context omitted.
Define "good" and "ok" first. A good person who doesn't use Twitter (someone who might fix cars, or works on a fishing vessel for example) who is having this little discussion about what is "good" and "ok" might very easily use the wrong words and offend someone.
Really? This is easy, don't hurt other people.
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Re: The new silent majority: People who don't tweet
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
Now define "hurt". It's not easy as "hurt" is not objective, is relative to others and no longer connected to intention.
This isn't some clover got you, if someone tell you your offended them then that's it, you offended them. You don't get to redefine it
You offended me.
Re: The new silent majority: People who don't tweet
#166I 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.
Maybe instead of demographic, it's about people whose public image is part of their job. Like startup executives, academics, athletes, politicians (even "low-level" politicians like city councilman), product managers, or venture capitalists. That's a lot of people who are juicier targets than someone earlier in their career, like a student, an associate, or entry-level software developer.
Re: The new silent majority: People who don't tweet
#167twtter has about 70 million US users, out of a population of 330 million (does twitter have an age cutoff for users?). One would presume that twitter is like other services, where a small percentage of the user base is producing a larger percentage of the content. So 'most people don't tweet' isn't really that much of a stretch.
The shocking story is that 25% of Americans tweet. As a non-tweeter, I would have assumed that number was more like 1-5%. 25% sounds pretty representative to me.
I'm annoyed by how this story seems to be jamming together unrelated things to paint a picture. Are people under the impression that twitter users are big political donors, or that twitter users don't mostly self-identify as independents? Are [capital-I]ndependents "somewhere in the middle," or is that just editorial trying to turn 42% of people into centrist charity-givers?
Re: The new silent majority: People who don't tweet
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
Now define "hurt". It's not easy as "hurt" is not objective, is relative to others and no longer connected to intention.
This isn't some clover got you, if someone tell you your offended them then that's it, you offended them. You don't get to redefine it
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Re: The new silent majority: People who don't tweet
#16925% of Americans sometimes tweet? That seems very high. I only know a couple of people who use Twitter...
It is. The statistic the article is actually referencing is that ~25%, "use twitter"[0]. That most likely indicates they at least open Twitter. Another post from the same site, the article references, has the headline that about 10% of those create 80% of the content[1]. Bottom-line a fraction of 25% sometimes tweet.
[0]https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2021/04/07/social-media...
[1]https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2019/04/24/sizing-up-tw...
Re: The new silent majority: People who don't tweet
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
Being canceled isn't even a real thing. It's just a phrase people use because they have to have consequences when they show their true selves. Some group of people don't agree with you? Show me an example of being canceled then
If you really think it's not a thing, here's an early cancellation. Pretty much everyone involved lost their jobs, and it was all over social media for a cycle. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/03/how-dongle-jokes...
My earliest memory of getting "cancelled" predates twitter where Dixie Chicks were "cancelled" by their own fans because they criticized the Iraq war.