Twitter Environment Promoting an Outrage Culture Essay Example

In the 21st century, specifically in the 2010s to the present day, social media use in the United States has expanded exponentially. This is especially true for Twitter, where users can express their beliefs to the world, with a limit of two hundred and fifty characters per tweet. To a non-user, the myriad of social media sites seem to blend together, all providing the same futile service. Twitter, however, possesses a unique feature. When many users tweet about a topic at the same time, this topic will be displayed on the Twitter “trending” tab. This tab often exemplifies the tremendous qualities of humanity, such as a coordinated effort to donate to Betty White’s favorite charity after her death last week. On the other hand, this tab also shows the ugly political divide within our country today, where it is common for users to celebrate the death of unvaccinated people, or to encourage Americans to “stop the steal”. Overall, the Twitter environment promotes an outrage culture on a variety of controversial topics.

In order to encourage civility and conciseness, Twitter implemented a two hundred and fifty character limit on each tweet. Unsurprisingly, forcing users to cram their thoughts into small segments of an idea has actually decreased civility and nuanced discussions on the platform. Say, for example, a user tweeted that “the election was stolen”, or “vaccines don’t work”. What would you do in this scenario? Few people will take the time to explain why the user is wrong, using empirical data to prove their point. Most instead will resort to ad hominem attacks. In a face to face conversation, it is easy to explain your point and back it up with evidence, as your opinion can’t be cut short by the whims of an app developer. Instead, when ideas are bound by a character limit on Twitter, the easiest way to gain satisfaction is to make personal attacks. Additionally, the character limit transforms the purpose of the platform, from an app for open debate and conversation to an app meant for users to chase approval from their peers.

In addition to the character limit, Twitter’s display of engagements further motivates users to prioritize personal attacks rather than civil debates. Twitter engagements are likes and retweets. If another user agrees with a tweet, they can “like” and “retweet” (reposting) it. Additionally, tweets with a large number of engagements will often be placed in the “trending” tab. Since Twitter publicly displays them, users are compelled to do whatever they can to maximize the number of engagements that they receive. Across the platform, it is much easier to gain engagements by mocking or ridiculing the person behind the tweet, rather than addressing what they said directly. For example, last month Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers tested positive for COVID-19 and missed a week’s worth of football activity. Though he had previously stated that was “immunized”, Rodgers was not vaccinated against the virus. This led to outrage across social media, with users and pundits alike dubbing Rodgers a bad person. In fact, one voter for the NFL Most Valuable Player, under pressure from his fellow Twitter users, expressed that he will not vote for Rodgers, as he is a “bad guy” and “the biggest jerk in the league”. Since everyone can see the number of engagements, users are motivated to pursue said engagements in order to achieve a sort of arbitrary social clout.

Contrary to in person interactions, exchanges on social media are motivated by a chase for support from fellow users.  The most popular posts on Twitter are often those which express the most outrage towards another individual or organization. The phrases that come to mind first are “How dare you?”, “You’re killing people”, or “You hate America”. Go to any politician's account, Democrat or Republican, and the replies with the most engagements will routinely contain these phrases or phrases with similar expressions of outrage. This, unfortunately, does not apply to just politics. Athletes and singers, among others, are both subject to this culture of outrage on Twitter as well. Once again, popular replies to their tweets will express displeasure or anger towards their performance in a game or concert, often in the most outrageous terms possible.

In general, these social media trends are quite concerning. For the most part, this newfound outrage culture is confined to social media, but it is slowly integrating into our day to day society. Examples of this potentially dangerous trend are quite common, such as the riot in our nation’s Capital. Wanting to take the most outrageous position possible, rioters claimed the election was stolen, which supposedly justifies their actions.