‘Ano Sagot?’: How Twitter wars shaped public discourse

War is not just about guns, bombs and missiles. about words too.

Well, this has been true for centuries, of course. But the we got a rude awakening these past years about just how much these words can matter in the digital age.

We’ve seen it from everyone— from politicians, religious, celebrities and the ordinary individual.

There are over 100 million active users on Twitter every day. Thus, it’s not hard to see why the platform has increasingly become a place for public discourse on social issues like human rights and politics to Daniel Padilla’s powerful tweet: “Ano Sagot?” after he got irked by another celebrity’s inappropriate comment over a basketball scuffle. (How relevant, isn’t it?)

One of the elements that facilitate such fast movement of news on Twitter is its power to create instant gratification — the feedback is immediate. The 140character limit is not a set back after all, because of how it pushes the users to be quick and short in their narratives. And being quick and short is rewarding.

Being direct to the point is not necessarily the key in live debates. But on a social medium like Twitter, where hundreds of millions participate, launching the right tweet at the right time, with the right hashtag can trigger a nuclear debate, especially if you’re influential.

And remember, shorter messages are more prone to distortion. Because the lack of details causes users to interpret it in a manner they wish to. Hence, it tends to polarize opinions. And, this happens very quickly.

Twitter may be a lair of narcissists and trolls, but it’s become something of a bellwether, for better or for w or se. Stay Active until our next chat!

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