December 19, 2014 - Written by: Becky Solomon

Be Careful What You Tweet…

You know when you see something milling around on twitter and you think, ‘Yeah, that’s a really good argument! I want in on the action! #haveyouseenthis?’ Everyone wants to chip in and have thier say. People like to have opinions on things and like to sound interesting and intellectual. They want to gather more followers and connect with people and think they’re doing something positive and engaging.

I’m all for that. Arguably, some hashtags have raised very important issues and sparked debate amongst the people.

Most recently, in Australia, #illridewithyou proved a powerful antidote to racism and sterotyping after a terrible islotaed terror attack.

However, I have recently been on the receiving end of some not so positive viral activity.

It was completely unfortunate. As with nearly all errors that are made, there were multiple components to why what went wrong, went wrong. Time constraints, first runs and not anticipating all of your audiences, equated to something the public got hold of and had a little fun with.

As I watched the horror unfold as it passed from person to person and then into the hands of bloggers, several things went through my head:

1) Fucking trolls!!!
2) These people don’t understand the situation at all and they have taken it widely out of context.
3) Do they realise how much trouble they are potentially putting me in if this doesn’t die down quickly?

They were arguing about a topic that, ironically, by putting me under scrutiny, defeated what they were arguing for.

(Image via)

These disgruntled tweeters had a point and were raising some important issues that I certainly didn’t disagree with. However, it was also like a game of Chinese whispers, where what started as a coherent sentence or argument, got widely transformed into something that it was never supposed to be about.

And that was the issue I had.

People are so quick to grab a hot topic and run with it, that they often don’t realise the problems that they are causing for people on the other end of it or how out of context it has become.

The experience was definitely a learning curve. And the advice I received from most people was: ‘You can’t stop it… Definitely join in’.

It had crossed my mind at one point, could I private message someone, and explain the unfortunate position they were putting me in? I didn’t (but you could argue I am now) and I let the debate run its course. As friends had comforted me, it would be forgotten by the next day. And it pretty much had.

So my advice is, when you’re joining a disgruntled twitter debate, and feel like you’re getting behind something positive – spare a thought for those on the receiving end and make sure that everything is in context.

People can be so quick to say things when they can do it behind the safety of a computer screen. If you’d only stop for a second and think ‘Would I say this to someone’s face? What would their counter argument be?’, you might just think twice about doing it.

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