Twitter is 20 years old. X’s decline into division is still damaging society

“Just setting up my twttr” posted Jack Dorsey on 21 March 2006.

I remember the first time I came across Twitter. A press officer was ignoring my repeated attempts to contact them. But I knew they were working because, searching for their name, I came across this new website where they were posting about what they had for lunch.

Detailing the mundanity of life, soon to be accompanied by equally uninteresting pictures, quickly caught on. Over the last 20 years, the rise of Twitter, and other social media platforms, meant sharing became the defining trend.

I succumbed too, posting articles I’d written, holiday snaps and, intermittently, a dream journal. 

For a while the democratisation of communication was exhilarating. Like that guy from Star Trek? Tell
them! The dopamine hit from them liking your post is a thrill! And I still get giddy thinking about the time
I woke up one morning to find that I’d been inexplicably followed by Pamela Anderson.

But sharing became oversharing and the whole thing soured. Not just tainting social media, but our entire existence. The new age of interconnection gave a platform to people who had previously been denied one and deserved it – but also plenty who definitely didn’t.

Vitriol was validated, sensationalism rewarded; the extreme started to dominate discourse. Without Twitter there would be no President Trump. 

Twitter and Trump didn’t start the fire, but they have certainly intensified the flames.

Read more:

• I am a social media addict. How can I repair my life?
• Transnistria: The country that doesn’t exist but could shape the future of Russia and Europe
• UK must take long-overdue action and cease arms sales to Israel – immediately  

The violent overthrowing of the Iranian government seems ingeniously designed – if you could believe decision makers possess any smarts – to divide us further.

Do you believe the US and Israel should launch bombing campaigns? Probably not. Do you believe the Ayatollah’s government was good for the people of Iran? Clearly not. Divide and conquer, insuring more distrust and despair are shared and shared again.

Throw in added uncertainty about where technology is heading. At the end of last month, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey announced 40% of his new company Block’s 10,000 employees would be made redundant, citing AI. Instability and uncertainty is a strategy.

One route of escape is demonstrated by this week’s edition, which looks at what can be assembled from the wreckage, when society rages against.

The parallels between punk’s rise out of the ashes of 1970s discord and today are clear. Change is called for but it needs to be created. And the act of creation isn’t easy. You suffer for your art. Just ask Mark Denton, behind this week’s blazing cover. 

“Waxing on was pretty straightforward,” he says, “waxing off was a bit more of a challenge…”

Thanks also to Jason Bick and Haus of Lucy for curating two incredible exhibitions in support of Big Issue, and Finn Brewster Doherty and the team at Camden Open Air Gallery (COAG) for helping us put together a special edition of a magazine that is as punk a publication as you could get.

Steven MacKenzie is deputy editor of Big Issue.Read more of his writing here.

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more. 

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