Is it worth a Tweet?

In light of the recent comment made by Stephen Fry in which he has threatened to leave the increasingly popular Twitter site due to negative feedback and the television programme Katie: My Beautiful Face showing the horrific consequences of contact with the wrong person on Facebook, the question needs to be asked; are these social networking sites actually making it easier and more accessible for anti-social behaviour to thrive?

Ever since the internet has been available throughout British homes, the dangers of communicating with complete strangers and the risks this could create have been feared. However with the introduction of sites such as My Space and Facebook these fears have been lessened with the introduction of ‘profiles’; pictures, blogs and contact details displayed with the apparent intent to present oneself to others. But are these representations truthful? In fact, could these profiles not be invented for an unsuspecting purpose? Of course they can.

We have already seen the likes of David Beckham and George Clooney show up on Facebook numerous times and Paula Abdul calling herself ‘The Real Paula Abdul’ as another person beat her to it on Twitter. Even the most truthful of us try to present ourselves in a way in which we want others to view us, even if we don’t realise we’re doing it; would you put a picture on the internet of your self which brought you to shame?

So it is plain to see that these social networking profiles can be no more trusted that an online chat site. Just because a male, University of Manchester Graduate has a picture showing a good looking 20 something and included in his interests are ‘playing rugby and taking strolls on the beach’ this doesn’t mean that an unemployed 30 something man who has never left his home town isn’t sitting behind the computer.
This opportunity to be anonymous also allows for people to sit by and openly comment on others in ways they see fit. With the rise of youtube and comment pages on almost every site the opinions of everyone are posted on wall upon wall, allowing criticism and degradation of public figures to be rife. Twitter is an open forum for such criticism; the members openly discuss their daily thoughts and actions, leaving them exposed and vulnerable.

In a recent article for the Guardian, David Schneider explained that performers like himself are harassed all over the internet with insults and criticism and that Twitter is  ‘the highest risk of all’, Of course it is. If you are going to constantly post ‘tweets’ about yourself every day, every hour and sometimes god help us, every minute, what exactly do you expect? I for one am not shocked and not at all appalled that one (yes that is just 1 out of 938,485) of Stephen Fry’s followers stated that he was boring. I do think he is a little sad to have bothered writing such a dull comment instead of not following him and maybe finding something more interesting to do like getting a life, rather than following other peoples.

Every one of us that is a member of Facebook or Twitter knows that everything we write post and display will be seen by others and we have to be ready to accept that not everyone is going to agree with or like it. As the old saying goes, ‘If you can’t take it don’t dish it out’ and if all else fails, get off the computer or i-phone and do something fun, see some real friends, and for god’s sake don’t tweet about it.