Twitter = Internet = Filth

March 1st, 2009

According to the Mail, Twitter is exposing children to porn, prostitution and what is bizarrely termed “pro-drugs propaganda”.

The substance of the complaint seems to be that there is no checking of people’s ages when they join Twitter, and no filtering of content, and that underage users will therefore be potentially exposed to all kinds of internet-related filth.

Well, the substance of the complaint is probably valid: anyone can sign up for Twitter, and they don’t filter content or links. And there is a certain amount of filthy content – some of it, in terms of foul language, tracked by this rather puerile but amusing site.

And there are porno site and pornstar twitter accounts, many of which contain lurid descriptions of video content, which is linked to from their tweets – stuff that you would not want your children to see, and probably you wouldn’t want to see yourself. However, there’s no evidence that I can see that these people are targeting children. And frankly, almost anywhere on the internet that you find yourself, you’re probably only a couple of clicks away from content that would not be suitable for children.

Responsible parents will no doubt both monitor and restrict their offspring’s use of the internet. To suggest that Twitter is adding to the problem is rather like suggesting that email is adding to the problem.

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Posted in Think of the children! | No Comments »

Social sites infantilising, says Baroness Stinkypants

February 24th, 2009

Susan Greenfield, the science-populariser, academic and member of the House of Lords, is quoted in a piece on the Guardian website today saying that the experiences that children have on Twitter, Facebook et al are “are devoid of cohesive narrative and long-term significance” and may result in a breed of mid-21st-century minds that have no sense of identity and lack empathy.

Lack of narrative? Lack of long-term significance? Getting used to both of those would seem to me to be an important life lesson…

She suggests that immersion in “screen culture” (and here social networking sites are conflated with video games) may be linked to the increase in prescriptions for attention deficit disorder medication.

She suggests that reading a book in which you “find out more about the princess” is much less damaging to the developing mind than a game in which you rescue the princess. OK, so reading is good, but we’re a bit off-piste now as far as FB/Twitter etc go.

According to Greenfield, sense of identity can be eroded by “fast-paced, instant screen reactions”. It’s not quite clear how this sits with her statement later that real-life interactions are much more “perilous”, occurring as they do “in real time, with no opportunity to think up clever or witty responses”.

So is it the fast pace of Twitter/FB/Bebo that is the problem, or the fact that they give you the time to think up witty responses? Feel free to take your time to answer. No, I mean: answer now!

Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure that children are best off with a healthy mix of social and other activities, but whether it is Greenfield’s fault or the Guardian’s (and it’s not always possible to tell), this has the whiff of moral panic. God knows what the Mail will make of it.

NB the Guardian’s commenters are worth a read: between them they pretty much cover all the valid objections to this story.

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Posted in Think of the children! | 2 Comments »

Twitter – a narcissistic baby monitor

February 24th, 2009

To be fair to Andy Pemberton in the Sunday Times, most of the negativity in A Load of Twitter comes from interviewees such as Dr David Lewis (”Using Twitter suggests a level of insecurity whereby, unless people recognise you, you cease to exist”) and Oliver James (”Nobody would Twitter if they had a strong sense of identity”), although he notes, in a pleasing but typically journalistic oxymoron that most tweets are “breathtakingly mundane”.

Joining the chorus of disapproval is Alain de Botton, who complains that no one on Twitter is asking what anyone thinks of Descartes’ second treatise. Since publication of the piece, of course, someone has asked this on Twitter, but he’s right – when you’ve only got 140 characters for responses, it would be rather a stupid question…

(Or would it – maybe there’s a market for 140 character summaries of major philosophical works. Actually better make it 120 characters to allow for retweets…)

Anyhow, having quoted a few well-known media whores who tell everyone how self-obsessed Twitter users are, the ST does have the decency to include a “how-to” boxout, and indeed then brazenly announces that their fashion team will be micro-blogging the fashion shows, and provides a link to follow them.

I guess they are hoping that some of their readers fit the profile of “followers” that Oliver James gives: “someone who is young and who feels marginalised, empty and pointless.” Sounds about right for fashion…

A final thought: if tweeting is narcissistic, presumably retweeting makes us more like Echo?

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Posted in Having it both ways | No Comments »

Government to appoint “Twittercrat”

February 24th, 2009

You might be forgiven for thinking that we were already living in a “twitocracy”, which doesn’t sound like the ideal form of government.

But hats off to Susie Squire of the Taxpayers’ Alliance for coining the word “Twittercrat” in relation to the government’s attempted appointment of a Director of Digital Engagement at a salary of £120k pa – although that isn’t quite outrageous enough for the Telegraph, who point out that the salary could rise to £160k, which would be more than the Lord Chancellor, which then gives them their shock headline.

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