World’s woes can’t be solved in 140 characters on Twitter

Amazing how the social medium we know as Twitter has leapfrogged to prominence over other social media that allow for much longer posts and put emphasis on photos.

And here I’ve been warning folk all this time not to post photos they’d regret. I now add the admonishment to watch what you write, even if it’s only 140 or fewer characters.

President Donald Trump has brought Twitter to the forefront as he uses it to wield heavy, and controversial, influence. Whether these tweets help or hurt him is up for debate. And I mean fierce, blood-drawing debate, usually also on Twitter.

I’d wager that none of us thought when Twitter — with its lighthearted, bordering-on-frivolous name — first came out, there’d be such things as “Twitter Wars.”

Just that phrase conjures up a scenario in the ol’ noggin. Remember that “If World War II was on Facebook” deal, complete with countries and military forces trading barbs? Well, I can see Star Wars played out on Twitter — “@Princessleia: “Help me, Obi-wan Kenobi. You’re our only hope … @ darthvader: Luke, I’m your father.”

But Twitter wars there have been. Often, they play out between celebrities over what my mother, God rest her soul, would have called “mess.” A 2016 feature on Thehollywoodgossip.com listed “15 of the Craziest Celebrity Twitter Feuds EVER.” Most of these were by celebrities I wouldn’t know from Adam; the ones I do know of not surprisingly include the names “Kanye” and “Kardashian.”

There was that recent Twitter war among museums — London’s Natural History Museum and Science Museum. At least it was more lighthearted as well as educational.

The latest Twitter war, involving the issue of professional athletes kneeling rather than standing during the national anthem, has been on the scale of a Twitter Civil War, with about a gazillion factions involved. It spilled over into Facebook with a vengeance, judging from my news feed. I haven’t seen this much online battling since the 2016 presidential election itself, doubtless accompanied by just as many unfriendings. So much for those moments of unity spurred by all the hurricane devastation. Reminds me of “A Taste of Armageddon,” that episode of the original Star Trek where Kirk and the gang happened upon computer simulation war that went on between two planets whose people, whenever they became virtual casualties, had to show up to be mass-executed for real.

I wouldn’t discourage anyone from taking a stand for what they believe in. But I fear that the art of agreeing to disagree has died an unfortunate death, 140 or fewer characters at a time.

Personally, I haven’t used Twitter that much. I’m the type who tends to get on Twitter once a month or so, scan the news feed (and find that too many Twitter links lead to 34-part stories, drawn out into one-graph, click-bait pages), do a bunch of tweets in quick succession, then ignore the medium for another month or so. Despite the urging of my boss, I’ve left my tweets protected to cut down on the likelihood of getting into arguments with any stranger who may wish to argue me down when I note that “The sky is blue,” or tweet something that goes viral and is misunderstood. I’m a lover — of people — not a fighter.

But like most everything, Twitter can cut many ways. It can be used as a tool to educate, inform and entertain; it can be used as a weapon of war … with good, bad or ugly results. We’ve become armchair soldiers in wars that range from whether to stand for the flag to who insulted whom on his late-night show. We’d do well to choose our Twitter battles wisely lest we shoot ourselves in the foot in 140 characters or fewer … and, if we must take up social-media arms, keep in mind that even war has Geneva Convention rules.