Twitter dumbs us down
Oh, to be 12 again, the better to enjoy the presidential debates.
Or rather, the better to appreciate the Twitterverse, where America’s obsessivecompulsive, attentiondeficit population holds the zeitgeist hostage with tweets and memes that infantilize political discourse and reduce the few remaining adults to impolitic fantasy.
In this, the first socialmedia presidential election, the debates have come to resemble reality shows during which virtual audiences cast ballots (and as persions), hiccoughing their impulsereactions to every word and movement into the intellectual vacuum we charitably call the body politic.
Two debates in, the complex issues of our day have been reduced to a large yellow bird and binders full of women.
The problem isn’t only with the debates themselves but also with the simultaneous critique by the world’s largest party — social media. Our million-way conversation is a convention of Snarks Anonymous. The cleverest com
menter gets a free, if short, ride on the Fame Wheel, usually at the expense of Mitt Romney, who, let’s stipulate, is not the likeliest presidential choice of the Twitter generation.
It would all be so very amusing if not for the subsequent media interrogatory. Did Romney cause himself irreparable harm among women voters?
As it turns out, at least some of his binders were provided by a women’s organization that was lobbying the governor for more women in power positions. Goodfor them— and good for him. He did it, filling 10 of the top 20 positions in his administration with women.
By contrast, it seems fair to mention, women staffers in the Obamaadministration have reported feeling marginalized, according to Ron Suskind’s book “Confidence Men.” One even described the White House as a “hostile workplace.” But never mind.
Romney can be awkward. His word choices are sometimes odd. But the idea that this particular phrasing was so jarring to some women that they got digital vapors is nonsense. Twitter may keep us entertained, but it can also make us ninnies.