Antisocial Media
There are many things I love about Twitter. I love how it provides immediate access to live, breaking news. In 2014, when Michael Zehaf-Bibeau was running amok on Parliament Hill with a gun, reporters and MPs trapped inside tweeted the nightmare as it unfolded; TV couldn’t compete. More recently, Twitter was the best way to follow the Jian Ghomeshi trial in real time, though it wreaked havoc on my productivity. I found it impossible to look away. But to me, Twitter’s biggest appeal is the way it creates intimacy
around ideas, opinions and politics. You can bond with strangers over a shared perspective, endorse the views of others and join in on conversations even if you haven’t been invited. Passionate, heated digital debates are commonplace.
However, Twitter’s intimacy can also make it an unpleasant place to hang out. In early spring, I tweeted congratulations to Desmond Cole. His 2015 Toronto Life cover story on being stopped by police was nominated for the Canadian Journalism Foundation’s Jackman Award, which honours work that has a “resulting impact” on the community. If anyone deserves the honour, it’s Cole, whose story played a key role in changing the city’s attitude toward carding. Soon after I sent out my tweet, some guy jumped into the conversation to insult Cole, going so far as to blame his success on affirmative action—a sentiment that is as appalling as it is untrue.
Ugly encounters like that are standard on Twitter because people say things they wouldn’t say in person. There’s little accountability or shame attached to nastiness, so people can be as vicious as they want and suffer no consequences.
Twitter originally promoted itself as a champion of free speech, a place where citizens could criticize authority figures without being censored. But people don’t always use that freedom nobly. In the U.K. in 2014, a man was jailed for 18 weeks after bombarding an MP with rape threats. Then came Gamergate, in which a pack of angry male video game enthusiasts ganged up on several female game developers, threatening them with rape and
murder. Twitter honchos now recognize that the interests of free speech must be balanced by concern for the safety of users. They have established rules that ban violent threats, harassment and hateful conduct. But with 332 million people using Twitter all over the world at all times, the rules are practically impossible to enforce.
A Toronto woman named Stephanie Guthrie was so concerned about the hostility directed at her by a fellow tweeter named Gregory Alan Elliott that she took her complaints to the police. The drama that ensued dragged on for three years and cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. Alexandra Kimball’s detailed and thoughtful account of their battle, “War of the Hashtaggers” (page 52), illustrates that our justice system isn’t yet equipped to handle the complexities of relationships on social media.
If reading about Twitter wars makes you want to toss your iPhone into the lake, Toronto Life has some suggestions for unplugging. In this month’s cover story, “Best of Summer,” we feature sleepaway camps for grown-ups, including a digital detox called Camp Reset. Electronic devices are forbidden. Instead, campers are encouraged to build stuff with Lego, forage for mushrooms and find their Zen via erotic colouring books. If you don’t believe me, you can read about it on page 47.