I joined Twitter in March 2009 and my reasons were quite simple really - I am a very isolated person in terms of any social life and having friends and I wanted somewhere to share my thoughts and interests and somewhere where I could openly talk about my lifetime of chronic depression. Simple reasons. Normal ones.
I found many like minds - I sought out individuals who liked the same music, always a good start, you can tell much from what music someone listens to. I found folk who shared the same politics as me but I've never excluded anyone who doesn't - I am a fully grown adult, not a child. How dull the world would be if we all thought the same things.
Twitter back in 2009 was still mass media free - the mass media mocked Twitter back then and there were very few public figures or celebrities. It was a much better place than it is today and there are reasons as clear as day as to why this platform is in so much trouble and why "The End of Twitter" is being suggested on many media platforms. If they invite me to their London offices I will happily put more meat on the bones of what I am about to suggest are the main issues and why millions have deleted their accounts.
Firstly I want to make something clear - I left my job back in August because I was the victim of a mass troll attack on Twitter - You all know the story so I won't bore you with any more details. It would be easy to blame Twitter and part of me does - it fails to police these very large groups who are part of what I can only describe as fandom cults - morons with nothing better to do in life than masturbate over very average actors or someone from the Telly.
They have one purpose to be on social media and that is to hate on anyone who doesn't like the same actor, singer, TV personality. Their lives are so empty that they decide they will live their life through someone who, let's face it, wouldn't give them the time of day in the street. The type of person who festers in the fandom community tends to be a social outcast, so by design they tend to be unhinged and if they were not spreading their ugly hate on social media they'd no doubt carve up a class full of school kids. These morons do not belong in a creative space. They have Facebook to be cunts on. So these insane overly obsessed fandom types are one of the reasons why many folk I know on here have left.
Twitter allows millions to use photographs of famous people as their Avi picture - it is one of the reasons why the Blue Tick came into play but this causes its own problems. The Blue Tick is now a symbol of elitism. It singles out certain personalities and having a Blue Tick only enhances many of their already inflated ego's. Many use their Blue Tick 'power' to go after individuals who may oppose their view or folk who don't like them and publicly state as much in a Tweet so they then turn their masses of followers on you.
Arse licking your favourite public figure is a very sorry sight on Twitter so it's easy to get these devotees to turn on some poor cunt who tweeted he hates Sherlock or whatever it is this person is in or does for a living. The devotee is so blinded by fame that if their idol tweeted something like, "that Hitler, he wasn't so bad," the daft fucktards would be down their local book shop seeking out a copy of Mein Kampf.
The whole idea of Twitter was a place for folk to come who had had enough of the mass media and celebrity obsessed fame seeking cuntitude of our great Island. It was somewhere to laugh and joke about what the mass media were reporting - it was a place to take the piss out of the celebrity culture. Once the mass media realised Twitter was getting huge they all decided to join. As all other public figures but they brought with them their own demands. We want Blue Ticks to protect our image rights - We want Blue Ticks to separate us from the great unwashed. The Blue Tick is just an extension of many of their already out of control narcissism. But fundamentally it has created a Twitter elite.
There was something very Leftfield about Twitter in the beginning. It helped many a political cause, for good or bad. Used extensively during the Arab Spring and even mobilised the electorate in Spain to change the course of an Election the day before an Election. I myself was part of the Protest The Pope movement in 2010 and we were only expecting 6,000 to turn up but ended up with nearer 20,000 largely due to getting the message out on Twitter.
Now most of the political groups are vile on Twitter - they are nothing better than trolls. The liberal elite are fucking this place well and truly up the arse the same way they have done to free speech in our society. It's as if now you can not have a personal view. You have to check what you tweet for fear of some massive backlash. The hashtag has become a bullet. You can get accused of racism, islamaphobia, misogyny at any given minute. The effected feminist might chop your balls off for saying you fancy someone on the TV. It often makes me laugh that all of these groups come under the heading of Leftist but act like fascists. Add this to the fact that the mass media are pigs on Twitter and you can see why the masses are leaving.
I have still got more good out of it than bad though. I met my best friend on here and we have had a frienship lasting 5 years now. I have connected with many folk who I would not have met in 'real life'. I started Pinter Quotes nearly 5 years ago and this has been a fu hobby now followed by 30,000. I have been invited to plays, to films and I have found so many new writers to read because of Twitter.
It must not die. We just all have to make sure that we block all those accounts which annoy us. We have to have to go back to why we came here. It has helped me through many a lonely night. I am man enough to say I am a loner. And without Twitter I might not be here any-more. Expressing yourself during those Black Dog moments can be the difference between staying alive and taking an overdose. I do not suffer to that extent any more and I can put my hand on my heart and say that this because of Twitter.
It must not die.
Tim ....London 2016
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