Social Media Clockface (Bing Clipart, Barry Law School 07.08.15)
Social media is an extension of talk by other means.* Let's take a look at two features of two of the social media platforms with which I myself am most familiar, Twitter and Facebook.
In two ways, social media is like a conversation. One way is that when a person goes on for 10 or 20 tweets in what they call a "thread," readership attention drops off dramatically between the first one and the last one. The same seems to be true of extended posts on Facebook that never seem to end. These long threads and endless posts are like a person talking so long that it seems they do not stop to take a breath. When they start talking, politeness may demand that we pay attention even if we are not especially interested. After awhile, sanity demands that we -- politely -- leave the conversation completely.
The second example is like the first example. Social media, and Twitter and Facebook in particular, suffer from people who tend to monopolize the conversation. On Twitter, some people tweet so frequently that they sometimes use up all the air in the room, so to speak. The same is true of some people on Facebook. These people are like the people who monopolize our other conversations: Once again, at the beginning politeness often demands that we pay attention regardless of our interest in the speaker or the subject, but after awhile we have to leave the conversation to save our sanity.
Social media is talk without words. Whenever and wherever we talk, the best kind of talk is always hard work but always worthwhile: First, let's speak to the point, and no further; second, invite replies and listen to them, and always speak as though God and the world can hear you, because they can.
*This is inspired by Clausewitz's famous observation that "War is the extension of diplomacy by other means."
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