Time for all of us to back away from Twitter

Focus on platform obscures view of real world, says

The New York Times did something recently that could be a game-changer.

In a memo, Times executive editor Dean Baquet encouraged staff at the paper to start to “meaningfully reduce” their time spent “tweeting or scrolling” on Twitter. (The memo came well before Elon Musk started the process of acquiring the company last week).

This move by the Times should be applauded, and replicated, in all newsrooms. I have seen journalists here in Saskatchewan call Twitter a “hellsite” and regularly lament the platform's ubiquitous but toxic presence in journalism. Yet few have permanently logged off for good.

This encouraged shift away from Twitter should also be replicated by those working in political backrooms. When I was in charge of social media management in the Saskatchewan Party world, my days generally consisted of the following: Thinking about, creating, posting and monitoring social media content, and then doomscrolling on Twitter. Most days, the platform became all-encompassing.

This obsessive, intense focus on Twitter is commonplace by nearly all in news and politics, and it's one of the reasons I eventually left politics a number of years ago; staring at my Twitter feed all day had a serious effect on my mental health, and I have yet to meet other social media managers in politics that have not had the same experience.

As a platform, Twitter is inherently not the problem; it remains fantastic for breaking news and to follow events in real time. (I went straight to my Twitter feed after Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars and I'll be honest, it was awesome.)

But while the platform itself isn't the problem, it's the obsessive use of it by journalists and political operatives that is. It's a problem because the more focus is put on Twitter, the more we are pulled us further and further from reality, as it's simply not where “regular” people live. At its best, Twitter should be used like Navy Seals raiding a compound: in fast, out fast. But for so many, that's not how it is used.

When it comes to meaningfully reducing time on Twitter, both media and political operatives need to start with one basic thing: Get up from your desk, get out of your offices and knock on the doors of regular people. Canvassing a neighbourhood can be a tonic to the ills of what is said on Twitter or like a totem in the movie Inception — it reminds us what's real and what's not; that regular people are just trying to make it through their days, get their kids to hockey practice, figure out how they're going to afford this month's bills or that they just want to watch the next episode of Bridgerton on Netflix without being bothered by politics.

We also need to look more at what public opinion polling is saying as opposed to what @jonhny3941 tweets. There are downsides to opinion polling as they only capture a single point in time and are far less reliable than face-to-face interaction. But opinion polling can bring us back to earth, especially around election time. Saskatchewan elections results in recent years have been remarkably in line with polling.

Overall, we should be taking Education Minister Dustin Duncan's recent advice by taking a break from social media. Duncan's campaign, aimed at improving mental health with teens, is a worthy initiative — but it should apply to everyone, not just young people.

I implore anyone reading this who works in a newsroom or is involved in politics: put down your phone. Close the Twitter tab on your web browser. Stop refreshing the timeline. And stop talking about what someone said or did on Twitter yesterday; no one in the real world saw it or cares about it. And to the bosses in charge in newsrooms and political backrooms: Encourage your staff to do this, too. They will thank you for it.

Instead, go out, knock on some doors, call your closest friends and family and see what they're thinking about right now. You will be amazed at what's going on out there beyond the tweeting world.